Paris Arts Now: The Olympics & More

It’s a marathon, not a sprint, when it comes to experiencing art in Paris this year. As the City of Light gears up for the 2024 Olympics, there are myriad major exhibitions and must-see concerts and performances, including a blockbuster show at Musée d’Orsay. Read on for culture writer Mario Mercado’s highlights.

At Fondation Louis Vuitton

Ellsworth Kelly: Shapes and Colors, 1949-2015: Frank Gehry’s striking glass architecture for the Louis Vuitton Foundation—a design reflecting the mutability of time and light—has proven ideal as a backdrop for exhibitions focused on single artists and special collections (past shows include Mark Rothko, Cindy Sherman, Olafur Eliasson, and the Morozov Collection of French and Russian modern art). This latest showcase surveys more than 100 of Ellsworth Kelly’s works, paintings, and sculptures as well as drawings, photographs, and collages, drawn from major collections throughout the world. Presented together, it chronicles the achievement of one of the most important American abstract painters and sculptors. May 4–September 9, 2024; fondationlouisvuitton.fr

At Centre Pompidou

Brancusi: The Romanian-born artist Constatin Brâncuşi, considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century, well-known for works as Bird in Space, The Kiss, and Endless Column, made his career in Paris. The artist bequeathed the contents of his studio to France before his death in 1957. Brâncuşi’s vast collection has formed a part of the Pompidou since 1977 and includes sculptures, photographs, drawings and archival documents. This show offers both a survey of the artist’s innovative work and reveals some surprising inspirations, including Romanian folk architecture. Through July 1, 2024; centrepompidou.fr

At Musée de Arts Décoratifs

The Birth of Department Stores: Fashion, Design, Toys, Advertising, 1852-1925: The show explores the rise of the department store within the historical, political and social context of the Second Empire, surveying the development and golden age of the monumental store or grand magasin, including Le Printemps, La Samaritaine and Les Galeries Lafayette, and the new era and style of consumerism. April 10–October 13, 2024; madparis.fr

At the Louvre

Olympism: Modern Invention, Ancient Legacy: This show examines the roots of the modern Olympic Games, including archaeology, and how the sporting competition of ancient Greece was reinvented for modern times to become the most-watched sporting event. Among the items on display is the first Olympic Cup, created by a French silversmith for the winner of the marathon (a race invented for the 1896 Games in Athens, the first Olympic Games of the modern age). April 25–September 16, 2024; louvre.fr

At Musée d’Orsay

Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism: This generous exhibition considers the circumstances that led 31 artists (among them: Monet, Renoir, Degas, Morisot, Pissarro, Sisley and Cézanne) to show their works together in a landmark 1874 exhibition. The “Impressionist Moment” was born in a post-war climate, following the Franco-German War of 1870 and a short-lasted civil war in France in 1871. On display are 130 works that bring a fresh eye to this period. Through July 14, 2024; musee-orsay.fr

At La Cinémathèque Française

The Art of James Cameron: The French love of cinema is well known, as is its critical consideration of cinematic history and art. This show traces the artistic origins and impulses of the visionary director. The wide-ranging exhibition brings together early sketchbooks, drawings, paintings, alongside props, photographs, and 3D technologies made or adapted by Cameron—some 300 original objects—to trace the director’s pathbreaking six-decade career. The takeaway: Cameron’s films—Aliens, Titanic and Avatar, among them—reveal an implacable imagination and a singular ability to create new cinematic worlds that transport viewers. Through January 5, 2025; cinematheque.fr

More than 970 events—and counting—constitute the wide-ranging event schedule of the Cultural Olympiad, in Paris, throughout France and abroad, a complement to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. Programming for children, youth and adults extends through summer 2024 and involves France’s musicians, dancers, actors, visual artists and photographers. Cultural events take place at institutions—the Château de Versailles, Opéra Garnier—and beyond walls, strolls by foot, bicycle, or waterside excursions. At the beautifully renovated and enlarged Carnavalet Museum, devoted to the history of Paris, visitors can take a guided tour then learn to breakdance (breaking is a new Olympic sport) in a special workshop led by Compagnie Relief dancers. • At the Musée Galliera and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, complementary exhibitions consider the mutual influences of sport and fashion, through clothing and accessories, fashion photography and advertising posters. olympiade-culturelle.paris2024.org

And in Versailles

Before (and after) the equestrian events and the pentathlon of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paraplegic Games take place at the Park at Versailles this summer, visitors to Versailles can admire virtuoso performances by horses and equestrians in shows by the National Equestrian Academy of the Estate of Versailles. Visitors can also tour the Grand Stable, the palace’s historic, royal stables. acadequestre.fr

Paris Opera

This spring, the Paris Opera mounts Gaspare Spontini’s La Vestale, a key work in the evolution of opera, but rarely revived since its 1807 premiere in Paris. The highly anticipated production is presented in its original French version, directed by Lydia Steier and led by conductor Bertrand de Billy. A musical harbinger of the Romantic age, Spontini’s opera requires a singer of exceptional dramatic and lyric gift (Maria Callas was a champion). The versatile soprano Elza van den Heever takes on the role of Julia, a priestess in the Temple of Vesta, divided between religious duty and romantic love for Licinius, a victorious Roman general. June 15–July 11; operadeparis.fr

Théâtre des Champs-Elysées

Two of today’s leading singers, American Lisette Oropesa and Frenchman Benjamin Bernheim—both admired for their beauty of tone, lyrical, expressive singing, and dramatic impulse—team up for a joint recital of opera arias and duets by Bizet, Verdi, Puccini and Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. April 26, 2024; theatrechampselysees.fr

Royal Opera, Versailles

At the theater of the Royal Opera, conductor Gaétan Jarry leads a starry, young cast in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, in a new, opulent production directed by Michel Fau, with sets by Antoine Fontaine and costumes by David Belugou. In French, with English surtitles. May 22–May 26. • An ensemble of young singers, members of the Jardin des Voix vocal academy, and the renowned instrumental group Les Arts Florissants, both founded by William Christie, a pioneer among conductors of Baroque music, present a new staging of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. June 27, 2024. operaroyal-versailles.fr

Baroque & More at Royal Chapel, Versailles

It is difficult to imagine a more splendid setting than the meticulously restored Royal Chapel at Versailles. It was Louis XIV’s last great building project for the palace, designed by his architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart, and completed in 1710. This spring, concerts of sacred music feature comparably glorious music from the Baroque and classical era. On April 28, 2024, conductor Vincent Dumestre leads vocal soloists and the ensemble Poème Harmonique in the program Vespers to the Virgin, psalm settings, motets, instrumental music drawn from the exceptional collection Selva Morale e Spirituale by Italian baroque master Claudio Monteverdi • On May 26, 2024, Mozart’s Mass in C minor, K. 427, composed in 1783 in Vienna, and a monument of classical style, is performed by vocal soloists, the choir of Radio France, and the Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, conducted by Case Scaglione. operaroyal-versailles.fr

Visiting Performances at Philharmonie de Paris

The dashing Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä, admired for incisive, compelling musicality, has become a sensation on the world’s stages, and was just named the next music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His appearances as music director of the Orchestre de Paris, both in France and on tour, sell out quickly. Mäkelä is also a gifted cellist and this spring joins musicians from the orchestra he leads in the intimate medium of chamber music. Guest artist soprano Christiane Karg joins the group for a program of Schubert and Brahms. The concert takes place in the Salle des Concerts at the Cité de la Musique, adjacent to the Philharmonie de Paris. May 17, 2024; phiharmoniedeparis.fr

Taylor Swift at La Défense Arena

The American superstar brings her Eras Tour to La Défense Arena for four shows in May. Yes, they’re all sold out, but resale tickets are very much still possible. Less possible? Finding a room in Paris during these dates. May 9 - 12, taylorswift.com