Featured Events in Paris in September, 2025 (July Updated)

In the Spring of 2025, Fondation is inviting David Hockney, one of the most influential artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, to take over the entire building for an exhibition that will be exceptional in its scale and its originality. The exhibition, which will be held from 9 April to 1 September 2025, will bring together more than 400 of his works (from 1955 to 2025) including paintings from international, institutional, and private collections, as well as works from the artist’s own studio and Foundation. There will be works in a variety of media including oil and acrylic painting, ink, pencil and charcoal drawing, digital art (works on iPhone, iPad, photographic drawings…) and immersive video installations.

The shortlist for this year’s Prix Marcel Duchamp, announced by the Association for the International Diffusion of French Art (ADIAF) is: Bianca Bondi (born 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Lives and works in Paris); Eva Nielsen (born 1983 in Les Lilas, France. Lives and works in Paris); Lionel Sabatté (born 1975 in Toulouse, France. Lives and works in Paris and Los Angeles); and Xie Lei (born 1983 in Huainan, China. Lives and works in Paris). Endowed with €90,000, the Prix Marcel Duchamp is the most prestigious contemporary art prize in France. It is awarded every year by the ADIAF to recognise contemporary art production by artists who are French or who live in the country. The prize is followed by an exhibition of the shortlisted artists. This year, for the first time since the creation of the prize in 2000, the exhibition will not be held at the Centre Pompidou, which will be closed for renovation. Instead, the exhibition will take place at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris from 26 September 2025 through 22 February 2026. The Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris is set to host the exhibitions of the Marcel Duchamp Prize until 2029.

The Balloon Museum’s new exhibition, presented at Grand Palais in Paris, Euphoяia – Art is in the Air, explores an emotion that the artists aim to evoke in the audience while simultaneously embodying a commitment to a new vision of the contemporary world, of which they become spokespeople. The exhibition positions inflatable works not merely as artistic mediums but as vessels for interaction, spectacle, and discovery. The word Euphoяia itself captures the essence of the experience and the project, with its final three letters evoking the very element that breathes life into the artworks: air. The exhibition is dedicated to exploring the relationship between art and inflatables, with the goal of examining artistic experiences that use inflatables as a primary material for creative expression. In an era where inflatables are a constant presence in entertainment, design, and architecture, this exhibition casts a new light: that of visual art and its ability to analyze a society undergoing profound transformation.

The Louvre’s Department of Near Eastern Antiquities is hosting ten major works from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art is currently closed for renovation. The Louvre and The Met have created a unique dialogue between these two collections, which is displayed in the Louvre’s permanent galleries. These ‘special guest’ artworks from The Met, dating from between the late 4th millennium BC and the 5th century AD, show some remarkable connections with the Louvre’s collection. In some cases, a pair of objects has been reunited for the first time, while in others, pieces complement each other by virtue of specific historical features of their respective collections. Representing Central Asia, Syria, Iran and Mesopotamia, this dialogue between collections is (re)introducing visitors to these extraordinary, age-old works of art and the stories they tell.

The Musée national Picasso-Paris collection is the fruit of an extraordinary history, made possible by the dation procedure - today it is the largest public collection of works by Picasso, the "Picassos of Picasso". Coming from the artist's studios, this collection gives us a better grasp of the aesthetic explorations of a Picasso who was by turns disconcerting, plural, contradictory, reflexive, gestural and conceptual, an aesthete and a committed activist, a tinkerer and a poet. Is he symbolist, cubist, classical, surrealist or simply figurative and political?

At the invitation of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca (b. 1961) has created a site-specific work in the chapel of the Hôtel Salé. Since his intervention at the Venice Biennale in 2007, Kuitca has developed a new language, echoing the architecture, which the artist calls ‘cubistoid painting’, in which a set of intersecting lines, like so many folds in the plane, is deployed directly on the walls, forming a new pictorial space.

From January 30, 2025,throughJanuary 4, 2026, the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech invites you to experienceYves Saint Laurent: The Hamish Bowles Collection, fifty-three odes to elegance, brought to life through an outstanding loan that will enthral visitors.

A pioneer of Neo-Impressionism and a pillar of anarchist and libertarian circles, Maximilien Luce (1858-1941) marked his era with a profound artistic and political commitment. A painter of urban and rural landscapes and the human condition, he captured the social and industrial transformations of his time with a unique sensitivity. The first Parisian retrospective since 1983 dedicated to this major Neo-Impressionist painter, the exhibition is held just steps from where Luce resided from 1887 to 1900, on Rue Cortot. Rooted in the history of Montmartre and the contradictions of his time, the painter's work is highlighted in this exhibition, which aims to reaffirm his importance and introduce his often overlooked oeuvre to the general public. Besides the humanist character that made the man's heart beat and distinguished his entire oeuvre, landscape was the other dominant theme that animated his painting throughout his life. Luce captures light and color, revealing the beauty of urban and rural landscapes with a persistent social sensitivity. For the exhibition "Maximilien Luce, the Instinct for Landscape," the Musée de Montmartre has chosen to present his work through the prism of landscape, taking visitors on a retrospective journey between the two essential centers of his life: Paris and Rolleboise. Visitors are invited to follow the artist's wanderings from Montmartre, where he lived from 1887 to 1900, through the bustle of the Parisian streets, and through his travels from Saint-Tropez to the Pays-Noir of Charleroi, via the Netherlands, Normandy, and London.

Gaza is home to a wealth of archaeological sites from all periods that are now in peril. The IMA is therefore offering an exceptional collection in more ways than one, made up of highly valuable pieces that the vagaries of history have saved from disaster and which reveal the depth of its history, a priceless treasure whose complexity is reflected in this exhibition. Since 2007, the Geneva Museum of Art and History (MAH) has become the museum-refuge for an archaeological collection of nearly 529 works belonging to the Palestinian National Authority and which have never been able to return to Gaza: these amphorae, statuettes, funerary steles, oil lamps, figurines, mosaics, etc., dating from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman era, form a collection that has become a reference in light of the recent destruction.

Paris Expo Porte de Versailles welcomes the Disney 100: L'Exposition! This exhibition brings together more than 250 precious collections, including classic animation manuscripts, movie props, costumes and accessories, taking you through Disney's 100-year creative process. The exhibition is divided into ten themed galleries, covering classic animations from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937 to "Moana" in 2021, as well as modern works such as Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars. Interactive installations, immersive experiences and rare exhibits will take you into the magical world of Disney and feel the charm of each story.

World-renowned for its stone monuments, Khmer art also produced significant bronze statuary, knowledge of which has undergone spectacular advances thanks to recent excavations. The Guimet Museum is dedicating the exhibition Royal Bronzes of Angkor: An Art of the Divine to bronze. The highlight of this exhibition is the statue of the reclining Vishnu from the Western Mebon—an 11th-century sanctuary west of Angkor—discovered in 1936, which originally measured over five meters in length. This Cambodian national treasure will be exhibited for the first time with its long-separated fragments, after benefiting from a scientific analysis and restoration campaign in France in 2024, with the patronage of ALIPH (International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage). It will be accompanied by more than 200 works, including 126 exceptional loans from the National Museum of Cambodia, whose presence allows for a chronological journey of bronze art in Cambodia, from the 9th century to the present day, through a journey leading the visitor to the major sites of Khmer heritage.

To conclude the program within the building, which will close for five years of renovation, German artist Wolfgang Tillmans (born in 1968, Germany) has been given carte blanche to take over the 6,000 m² of Level 2 of the Bibliothèque publique d’information (Bpi). He will explore both the library’s form—its architecture and layout—and its functions, such as the transmission of knowledge, accessibility, and resource sharing, through the lens of his aesthetic universe.Rooted in the counterculture spirit of the early 1990s, Tillmans' photographic work delves into the profound transformation of media and information platforms in our time. By proposing new ways of making, viewing, and confronting images—both with each other and across disciplines such as video, music, text, and performance—he invites us to embrace a renewed humanism.

Paul Poiret, the legendary French designer who led the revolution, opened the prototype of modern fashion in the 20th century with his mysterious design elements that advocated oriental aesthetics, and once created the amazing "Oriental style clothing". As a fantasy master in the fashion industry and an aesthetic dictator who is regarded as the "King of Fashion", Paul is also the first designer to establish a perfume company. His talent extends to interior design and he has become the ancestor of the fusion of fashion and lifestyle. In 2025, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris will launch a special exhibition to commemorate the figure of this legendary master who ignited the fashion revolution with the flowing clothing silhouette and colorful colors. The exhibition content will focus on Paul Poiret's fashion design, decorative art, and perfumery, and then go deep into topics such as party style and food taste, recreating the dreamlike fashion scene in the early 20th century and remembering the master together.

John Singer Sargent (Florence, 1856 – London, 1925), along with James McNeill Whistler, was the most famous American artist of his generation and certainly one of the greatest painters of the 19th and early 20th century. Revered in the United States (his Portrait of Madame X is regarded as the Mona Lisa of the American art collection conserved by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York), he is also famous in the United Kingdom, where he spent most of his career. In France, however, his name and work remain largely unknown, a situation that the exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay in fall 2025 hopes to change.

The exhibition traces the extraordinary life of this Italian artist, a Russian prince by birth and Parisian by adoption, who also had a brilliant career in the United States. A highly talented portraitist, he was much sought-after by a cosmopolitan elite, celebrities, the Parisian smart set and the first American film stars. His life was marked by decisive encounters and friendships with men of letters, Tolstoy in Russia and George Bernard Shaw in Paris, with whom he shared a vegetarian lifestyle, somewhat unusual for the era. In addition to the portraits that made his name, the exhibition will be highlighting his animal sculptures along with his astonishing work on behalf of animal rights, of which he was an ardent advocate well ahead of his time.

Guillaume Bottazzi a réalisé un tableau fruité en face du parc Montsouris. Il est visible de l’extérieur, au 34-36 avenue Reille, à Paris dans le 14ème arrondissement. Ce tableau apporte l’art ou on ne l’attend pas forcément et accompagne le quotidien des habitants. Cette huile sur toile de lin mesure 0,90m de haut par 1,80m de large. Elle a été conçue pour habiller l’entrée d’un bâtiment et dialogue avec les éléments qui l’entourent. L’artiste a déjà créé plus de 65 œuvres dans des espaces publics, comme un polyptique de 100m² à Paris La Défense, à Hong-Kong ou au Japon où il est l'auteur de la plus grande peinture du Pays, commandée par le Musée International d'Art Miyanomori. Ses œuvres font partie de collections muséales, notamment en Asie et aux Etats-Unis.

Guillaume Bottazzi a réalisé un tableau fruité en face du parc Montsouris. Il est visible de l’extérieur, au 34-36 avenue Reille, à Paris dans le 14ème arrondissement. Ce tableau apporte l’art ou on ne l’attend pas forcément et accompagne le quotidien des habitants.Cette huile sur toile de lin mesure 0,90m de haut par 1,80m de large. Elle a été conçue pour habiller l’entrée d’un bâtiment et dialogue avec les éléments qui l’entourent. L’artiste a déjà créé plus de 65 œuvres dans des espaces publics, comme un polyptique de 100m² à Paris La Défense, à Hong-Kong ou au Japon où il est l'auteur de la plus grande peinture du Pays, commandée par le Musée International d'Art Miyanomori. Ses œuvres font partie de collections muséales, notamment en Asie et aux Etats-Unis. Site internet de Guillaume Bottazzi : https://www.guillaume.bottazzi.org

Since 2019, the museum has invited a contemporary artist to come and dialogue with its collection. For the ninth edition of these “Unexpected Dialogues.”, it has chosen to invite Françoise Pétrovitch. A major artist on the French and international art scene. In this “Unexpected Dialogue”, presented from April 9 to September 14, 2025, she has chosen another woman artist, Berthe Morisot, with whom she shares the themes of portraiture, childhood, adolescence and intimacy. Here, the parallel between Morisot’s Roses trémières and Pétrovitch’s Soleils highlights another bridge between the two painters: the very embodied, interior relationship with nature.

A retrospective, the exhibition retraces the artistic journey of the founder of lyrical abstraction, Georges Mathieu (1921-2012), in eight chronological and thematic sections. As early as 1947, seeking to capture the creative moment, Mathieu rejected geometric art forms in favor of spontaneous, gestural painting, marked by speed of execution and raw emotion. This quest for freedom sometimes led him to create his large abstract compositions in public. Deeply curious, Mathieu also devoted his energy and style to the applied arts: tableware for the Manufacture de Sèvre, posters for Air France, and a series of medals for the Monnaie de Paris – including the iconic 10-franc coin minted in 1974. The exhibition presents Mathieu's large-scale works, held by the Musée National d'Art Moderne, and medals minted in the Mint's workshops, alongside emblematic paintings and decorative works from public and private collections.

The exhibition The World Through AI presents a selection of works created between 2016 and today, many of them previously unseen, which raise the question of how we experience the world “according to AI” or “through the prism of AI”. Specially designed for the Jeu de Paume, the exhibition reflects the fundamental distinction between “analytical AI” (which includes computer vision and facial recognition systems) and “generative AI”. Time capsules, designed as cabinets of curiosities, link the present to the past, placing current transformations in a historical perspective.

While Khmer art is known around the world for its stone monuments, recent excavations have provided dramatic breakthroughs regarding our knowledge about its significant bronze statues.

The artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot takes over the Rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce with her multi-sensory installation entitled "clinamen", presented in a format of unprecedented scale, in resonance with the architecture of the place.

The Marie-Laure de Decker exhibition is the first major retrospective devoted to this major figure in photojournalism. By rehabilitating her work, the MEP is paying tribute to her by highlighting her vision and approach, which are capable of bringing together history and intimacy, and which have a particular resonance today.

Retracing the early years of Nedko Solakov’s career and presenting for the first time in France a historical body of his work, the exhibition offers a critical lens on the cultural tensions and transformations that shaped Bulgarian and Eastern European society between 1980 and 1990. In a historical moment on the verge of monumental change - marked by the Perestroika reform movement beginning in 1985, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the eventual decline of the USSR - Solakov entered a pivotal decade of artistic production. His work during this period captures the transition from communism to capitalism, while also anticipating the uncertain realities that followed the collapse of the socialist regime.

On the occasion of the Grand Palais d'été and after the extraordinary success of the Pop Air exhibition in 2022, the Euphoria exhibition designed by the Balloon Museum teams and curator Valentino Catricala is coming to the Grand Palais.

In her first exhibition at Hauser & Wirth’s Paris gallery, Rita Ackermann presents a new series of paintings and large, related works on paper that take up the theme of the double. In the works on view, Ackermann does not just evoke the presence of a dual entity but unveils its structure. Innovative in their unexpected combinations of materials and defined by a sharp conceptual tension, these works draw inspiration from two giants of French culture—Jean-Luc Godard and Paul Virilio. The results are as unsettling as they are exacting.

The Palais de Tokyo and the CAPC Musée d’art contemporain in Bordeaux join forces to unveil and present the cryptic work of RAMMELLZEE, an iconic artist from the 1980s American underground scene. The first large-scale European event, this deliberately enigmatic exploration is conceived in two acts, like the sides of an audio cassette or a vinyl record. Side A, at the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), from February 21 to May 11, then from June 12 to September 7 2025. Side B at the CAPC (Bordeaux), from 12 March to 20 September 2026.

This exhibition is Thao Nguyen Phan’s (1987) first monograph in France. The artist presents a selection of recent or newly produced works (videos, paintings, sculptures), focusing on various historical figures linking France and Vietnam. This is an opportunity to develop a polyphony of views on her country and its history, its past and present ghosts. As a counterpoint, the artist Truong Cong Tung (1986) shows two site-specific works.

Ten years after the exhibition presented as a declaration of love, Ugo Rondinone: I John Giorno at the Palais de Tokyo, John Giorno’s poetry returns to the heart of the art center with an installation specifically designed for the building. Poet, artist, activist, figure of the New York underground from the 1960s until his death in 2019, John Giorno devoted his entire life to making the creative act more democratic by imagining new ways of thinking about how art, poetry, performance, music, spirituality and activism can intermingle and mutually enrich each other. In the spirit of his Poem Paintings,in which phrases or words from his poems are printed in large, colourful capital letters on various supports, the Welcoming the Flowers installation unfolds across the windows of the main landing in the publicly accessible area of the Palais de Tokyo.

Chalisée Naamani creates "image-clothes" from photographs she takes with her phone or retrieves from the internet, from which she creates large digital collages, which she then prints on various media. For her exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, the artist has designed an in situ installation using associations of images and composite sculptures that explore the multiple ways of constructing one's body. For her exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo, the Franco-Iranian artist was guided by the flights of stairs and the seemingly incomplete geometric shape of the space. Sensing a half-octagon and a distant echo of the Iranian zurkhaneh—a term that designates both a sport and the gymnasium in which this national discipline, a cousin of bodybuilding, wrestling, and resistance to enemy invasions, is practiced—the visual artist enjoys embracing its forms and making them resonate differently.