Hello from Lacoste: Paris’s art-rich museum scene

By Rachel Chaikof

Just a short time ago, a few lucky SCAD-Lacoste students (myself included) were given the chance to take a trip to Paris and explore its rich collection of museums and art galleries. The trip gave us all the chance to expand and enhance our knowledge and appreciation for art, as we toured famous museums like the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, and the Pompidou Center.

As someone who’s visited Paris three times and actually lived there for three weeks one summer, I was honestly not looking forward to revisiting the city and seeing the same old sites. I thought I’d seen the entire city, but I came to find out that wasn’t the case at all.

First of all, I visited two galleries that I have never been to before. My photography professor took us to Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, an incredible museum temporarily exhibiting a contemporary photography collection — Objectives. These photographs displayed Dusseldorf from the 1960’s until the present in variety of concepts including landscape, cityscape, documentary and portraits. I was so inspired by the photographs that I took notes to research for future ideas and projects.

We also visited Maison Européen de la Photographie, an enormous photography gallery displaying contemporary photographic art including commercial photography and surrealism photography. This museum has a varied range of works on display and offered some new and fresh perspective on modern photography.

The Museum, I discovered on our trip, is so big that I actually had not seen the entire museum like I thought I had. So, of course, I didn’t mind exploring more. I discovered many pieces of art that I had learned about in art history courses, such as the “Virgin of the Rocks” by Leonardo da Vinci and “Le Bain Turc” by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. I’m so used to seeing the artwork on a piece of a paper, but viewing these artworks firsthand was surreal. I was able to see the textures of the paint, specifically how the paints were stroked onto the canvas. I wanted to touch the paintings, to attach myself with their beauty and their texture. Later, I got a chance to view “Raft of the Medusa” by Theodore Gericault, and I was shocked by its massive size. The length of the painting was almost the same length as the wall! I felt that I could step inside the painting and be part of the story as people were the same size as me.

Paris has certainly overwhelmed me with its size and magnitude that I have come to finally notice on this trip. I didn’t even finish seeing all of the galleries suggested by my professors, so I will have to make plans to visit again soon.