ART on view
54
Interview by Elena Martínez-Jacquet
FIG. 1 (above):
Maximilien Luce, Félix
Fénéon. 1901.
Oil on cardboard. 45.5 x 39 cm.
Musée d’Orsay, RF 1980-189.
Photo © RMN/Grand Palais/Adrien
Didierjean.
An exhibition honoring Félix Fénéon
(1861–1944) has been in the works for several
years now. It will be a major event that will be
shown in three phases: fi rst in Paris at the Musée
du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris from
May 28 through September 29, 2019; then at the
Musée de l’Orangerie, also in Paris, from October
16, 2019, through January 27, 2020, and, fi nally,
in New York at the Museum of Modern Art in the
spring of 2020. The resources being deployed to
produce this show attest to the historical importance
of this unusual individual. Among many other
things, Fénéon was an art critic, an intellectual,
a champion of the neo-impressionists, a promoter
of African art, a collector, and an anarchist.
Isabelle Cahn (curator of paintings at the Musée
d’Orsay) and Philippe Peltier (honorary curator
and curator emeritus of the Oceanic and Island
Southeast Asian collections at the Musée du Quai
Branly – Jacques Chirac) are overseeing the production
of these three events and were kind enough
to take a few moments to talk with us about the
project as its fi rst part at the Musée du Quai Branly
– Jacques Chirac goes into the fi nal stages of preparation.
They are both passionate about Fénéon and
describe him as a man with a thousand faces, as
brilliant as he was elusive.
Tribal Art Magazine: Félix Fénéon is known to
most readers of this magazine as the author of the
well-known essay “Enquête sur les arts lointains:
iront-ils au Louvre?” (On the Arts from Distant
Places – Will They Be Shown at the Louvre?),
which was published in the Bulletin de la vie
artistique in 1920 and is often cited as one of
the intellectual pillars for the foundation of the
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. It’s long
seemed like it was just a matter of time before the
museum would devote an exhibition to him. How
did this project get started?
Philippe Peltier: Félix Fénéon is a seminal fi gure,
but one who has remained little known despite
his signifi cance. Isabelle had long been thinking of
an event that would acquaint a broader audience
with him. An exhibition of this kind made perfect
sense at the Musée d’Orsay (which the Musée de
l’Orangerie has been a part of since June 2010),
since Fénéon was close to the neo-impressionists,
particularly Georges-Pierre Seurat and Paul
Signac, and also because he was so active as an
art critic at the end of the nineteenth century.
As you mentioned, an exhibition about him is
equally well suited to the Musée du Quai Branly
– Jacques Chirac, since he was also a champion
for the recognition of African art, as well as being
a major collector. The idea for a show that paid
tribute to him was also very much in the air at the
Musée du Quai Branly.
We let the idea ripen, and about fi ve years ago
the project took root naturally. During the time
we were developing it, Isabelle and I tried to
understand how all of Fénéon’s many facets were
tied together, how they evolved and changed, and
how his various activities got started. We are very
pleased to have settled on the idea for an event in
FÉLIX FÉNÉON
Art from Distant Places