Frank Gehry Retrospective - Centre Pompidou

Fondation Louis Vuitton maquette - Frank Gehry

We might as well just rename October "Frank Gehry Month" in Paris: not only is the legendary architect's spectacular, vessel-like building for the Fondation Louis Vuitton opening on the 27th October, but the first major retrospective in Europe dedicated to the his career is also opening this week at the Pompidou Centre. 

The exhibition spans the Pritzker prize winner's work the world over, with 67 maquettes on display, from his debut in 1960s California right up to his iconic international projects today - including his most recent project, the afforementioned LVMH project - via the Guggenheim Bilbao, LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall, New York's IAC building and more. From room to room we see how Gehry has revolutionised architecture's aesthetics, its social and cultural role and its relationship to the city, not only via the models on display but also through over 200 sketches - which are a long way away from tightly plotted blueprints - and Sydney Pollack's 2006 film, "Sketches by Frank Gehry." A must-see for fans of Gehry's distinctive work. 

Frank Gehry

8th October 2014 - 26th January 2015 

Centre Pompidou

www.centrepompidou.fr

Tatoueurs Tatoués - Musée du Quai Branly

Britain's first female tattoo artist, Jessie Knight, at work in 1955. ©Getty Images

Paris' museum of indigenous art, the Musée du Quai Branly, presents Tatoueurs Tatoués, an exhibition devoted to the practice of tattooing, with over 300 historical and contemporary works from all over the globe on display. Curated by Anne & Julien, founders of the art magazine Hey! - and in collaboration with France's most revered tattoo artist, Tin-Tin - Tatoueurs Tatoués traces the history of body art from the ritualizing decorations of traditional societies, to a means of marking criminals, to a form of sideshow spectacle, up to its present day ubiquity. On show are a vast variety of exhibits, from samples of tattooed skin (such as a swatch from 18th century Indonesia), to archival photos of the tattooed and the tattooers (such as Britain's first female tattoo artist, Jessie Knight, born 1897), tools (including Thomas Edison's 1877 stencil gun) and tattooed silicon body parts and canvases of fantasy projects created especially for the exhibition by 30 master tattooers from across the world. The exhibition also covers the art of tattooing by region, documenting the history, role and style of tattooing in Japan, North America, Europe, Asia and Oceania.  

Tatoueurs Tatoués at the Musée du Quai Branly

37 Quai Branly, 75007 Paris

Open Tues-Sun, 11am-7pm (until 9pm Thurs-Sat)

Until 18th October, 2014

"Volume" tattooed especially for the exhibtion by Filip Leu 

Bamboo and ebony tattoo tools from Japan - 20th century

Tattoo artist Freddy Corbin

Letters between Sailor Jerry and Ed Hardy

Old Man Tattooing a Back, Anonymous, France, 18th Century 

"Volume" tattooed especially for the exhibtion by Tin-Tin

Plates made for Alexandre Lacassagne, France, early 20th century

France's most revered tattoo artist, Tin-Tin, was the artistic consultant for the exhibition

Henri Cartier-Bresson at the Centre Pompidou

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Crowd waiting outside a bank to purchase

gold during the last days of the Kuomintang,

Shanghai, China, December 1948. © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos,

courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson, First paid holidays, banks of the Seine, France

1936. © Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos,

courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson

Paris' Centre Pompidou presents an extraordinarily thorough retrospective of French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson's oeuvre, with more than 500 works spanning the artist's 70 year career. The chronological exhibition starts with the period in which Cartier-Bresson fraternised with the Surrealists and began his work as a photographer, followed by the era marked by his political engagement and his work for the Communist press, and leads on to his photo-reportage work and the creation of the Magnum Photos cooperative. Bringing together this wealth of work - which includes photographs, films, drawings and documents - the retrospective aims to show the many facets of Cartier-Bresson which, united by his eye for composition and ability to capture a singular moment, made him one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century. 

Henri Cartier-Bresson, 12th February - 9th June 2014

Centre Pompidou

Every day except Tuesday, 11am - 9pm. 

www.centrepompidou.fr