A plunge into the intimacy of the family, the unspoken and the violence... The Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris is devoting an exhibition to French artist Philippe Perrot, at the heart of the museum's permanent collections, from April 4 to November 2, 2025. The exhibition highlights the figure of the father, embodying the ambiguity of a right-thinking society in which the hypocrisy of appearances reigns supreme. An artist who, until his death in 2015, strove to transcribe onto canvas an inner world marked by childhood wounds, family traumas and obsession with parental figures.
The Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris is highlighting this rare work of unsettling intensity with an eventful exhibition, enhanced by six canvases recently acquired in 2019 and several loans from private collections. This is an opportunity to (re)discover a confidential body of work, comprising just 130 paintings and as many drawings, in a sensitive, immersive tour.
In his works, this painter conjures up floating visions in which bodies seem to dissolve in a universe saturated with garish colors, from yellow ochre to Betadine and eosin. The characters, often deformed or suffering, evolve in fractured mental spaces, overtaken by buried memories or burlesque images inspired by cartoons. You move from canvas to canvas as if in a hallucinatory sequence shot, where each superimposed scene seems to be replaying a bad joke, in the artist's own words.
Philippe Perrot is not proposing a frontal work here, but a mental territory to be explored, made up of juxtaposed micro-narratives, dreamlike sequences in which everyone can project their own anxieties or most intimate memories. If you are fascinated by the links between art and the unconscious, if you like works that arouse as much unease as fascination, this exhibition is for you.
Far from the blockbusters of contemporary art, this exhibition is for those seeking a sensory, introspective, almost psychoanalytical experience. Whether you're looking for a contemplative moment on your own, a couple's outing conducive to existential discussions, or a suspended moment with friends keen on art brut and mental imagery, you'll find in this tour a way of seeing differently, of looking into yourself through the eyes of another.
The atmosphere is hushed, almost silent, as if not to disturb the whispers that the works seem to exchange with each other. Why not let yourself be surprised? If you've always dreamed of losing yourself in a pictorial universe that's both disturbing and poetic, this is the exhibition for you. Don't miss this rendezvous with the intimate and the imaginary. Immerse yourself in the work of Philippe Perrot, where each canvas is an enigma to be deciphered, a dream to be interpreted.
Dates and Opening Time
From April 4, 2025 to November 2, 2025
Location
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris
11, avenue du Président Wilson
75116 Paris 16
Prices
Free
Official website
www.mam.paris.fr
More information
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 6 pm.
