Decorative Arts Museum - From China to Decorative Arts

from 13 February 2014 to 29 June 2014 - Museum of Decorative Arts -107 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris.

The exhibition  From China to Decorative Arts unveils, for the first time, the exceptional quality and diversity of the collection of Chinese art objects held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
Fruit of acquisitions made in the first decades of the institution, donations and legacies of generous collectors, this remarkable ensemble reflects the craze for Chinese art in France, mainly in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of Twentieth century.
The interest that these donors have had for works from China, and more broadly, for the Middle East and the Far East, is often the fascination for certain techniques and materials, but also for their forms. and their motives.
The exhibits are an invitation to discover craftsmanship and to enter a world that has attracted and intrigued, renewing the French ornamental vocabulary from the first universal exhibitions to more recent periods.

Today, the knowledge we have of Chinese culture allows us to look at these objects with a different view, that of their meaning and their uses, and to better understand the interest that the Chinese themselves have shown in the course of centuries. These are the two looks that we tried to cross in the exhibition that is organized as part of France China 50