Chagall, Modigliani, Soutine & Co. The School of Paris.

At the beginning of the 20th century, numerous painters, sculptors, and photographers flocked from all over Europe, even from Japan, to settle in Paris. Leaving sometimes hostile societies and attracted by particularly favorable conditions, all contributed to making the French capital, until the Second World War, an unparalleled artistic scene. It was these artists of foreign origin who inspired a critic of the time to name the "School of Paris," giving its title to the exhibition that this catalog accompanies.
Often creating on the fringes of the avant-garde, as they remained faithful to figurative art, many of them would become famous, such as Chagall, Modigliani, Picasso, Soutine, Van Dongen, and Brassaï. Others, unjustly overlooked, including several remarkable women artists, remain to be rediscovered. This is made possible by the collection of the Musée national d'art moderne, the sole lender of the exhibition, which maintains a reference collection on these artists.
Designed by the Centre Pompidou in close collaboration with the Musée d'art moderne de Céret, the exhibition also has the merit of recalling the existence during this period of a real artistic axis between Paris and Céret, with Picasso, Juan Gris and Soutine having made decisive stays in the Catalan city.