Paris Slideshow

Paris Modernism GWU from Meghan Shea on Vimeo.

Paris: Modernism and the Arts, then and now

The George Washington University,
Study Abroad: Paris, France, June 2009
Faculty: Professor Mary Buckley
Teaching Assistant: Meghan Shea
















Using the museums and sites of Paris as resources, Paris: Modernism and the Arts, Then and Now offers a multi-disciplinary view of the aesthetic movements that changed the course of art and thought in Europe and elsewhere during the first half of the 20th century.


The framework of the artistic past guides students as they design a photographic and literary journal of their experience. Students explore and document the contemporary artistic scene in theatre, dance, music, and the fine arts traditions of contemporary Paris, adding their own voice to this historical perspective

June 8, Arrivée

Today we arrived in Paris! After landing each of us made our way to the pension, the bed and breakfast where we will be living for the next two weeks. The pension is located in a charming neighborhood in the 6th arrondissement of Paris and greets its guests through a large wooden door, a walled courtyard and a winding staircase.

We took a tour of the neighborhood and oriented ourselves to the metro and boulangerie in the area; lucky for us numerous bakeries populate our street! Directly across from our pension is the Jardin du Luxembourg; these beautiful public gardens were built for the court of Marie de Medici in the 17h century and contain a multitude of walking paths, fountains, and flowers. Today the gardens host a museum; modern art installations, petanque courts, and attract Parisians students, families and artists alike.

Not long after our neighborhood tour we headed inside for our first lecture to discuss the major themes of the course and to review the daily schedule of activities. Looking across all of the art forms in the early part of the 20th century, we focus on Paris and the resources of the city to articulate the role Paris played in the foundation of modernism.

We share dinner together tonight at the pension and then climb into bed determined to ward off the jetlag and dive into Paris tomorrow.

June 9, Ballets Russes et l'Hôtel de Ville

June 9

We began the day with a lecture on the Ballets Russes dance company. Working in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century, this company and its groundbreaking art serve as an avenue to explore themes of modernity. Under the guidance of impresario Serge Diaghilev, choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky and composer Igor Stravinsky developed “Le Sacre du Printemps,” a controversial and revolutionary collaboration. The Ballets Russes attracted artists from every art form: Matisse, Picasso, and Roerich designed costumes and Stravinsky composed seminal music scores, among others.

In the afternoon we toured l'Hôtel de Ville, Paris’ beautiful City Hall. Hotel de Ville sits in the center of Paris, and at night is one of the most glorious sites on the Seine. The building was designed and decorated in the 1870s when the style of the bourgeoisie was ornate, gold and opulent. Seeing this style of architecture and design allowed us to better understand the type of aesthetic that was in fashion when the modern architects, dancers and visual artists made such radical shifts away from these types of spaces and designs.

June 10, Maison Européenne de la Photographie et Théâtre de la Ville, Wim Vandekeybus

In the morning we went to the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, a contemporary photography museum located in Paris’s Marais neighborhood, and met with Gerard Uferas, one of the photographers whose work is currently on exhibit. Gerard’s show is arranged in three series: “A Phantom with the Opera” (1988-2001), “Fabric of Dreams” (2000) and finally “A Step Towards Stars” (2003-2005), representing Gerard's work over the past twenty years. The photographs of the opera are striking in their beauty, compositions, and tenderness. They reveal compelling human moments focusing primarily on backstage vantage points with the performers and company. There is a touch of humor laced throughout the work and after seeing the exhibit one shares the sense of Gerard’s ‘Joi de Vivre’.

After walking through the show, Gerard was generous in discussing the work with us. He engaged us in questions about our ways of seeing as 20-year old American students and was open to all of our questions on form, technique and content. Having the opportunity to speak directly with an artist about their work is always valuable, particularly when they have a deep reservoir of intellect and curiosity like Gerard.

Tonight we went to a contemporary dance performance at the one of the premier performing spaces in Paris. "NieuwZwart" by Wim Vandekeybus challenged our ways of seeing. The choreography created a fantastical underworld; and themes of darkness, and brutality were omnipresent throughout the piece. We left haunted by images of dancers suspended mid air, and launched into movement, while the raucous musical score shook us.

June 11, Museé d’Orsay

Today we went to the Museé d’Orsay for an on site art history lecture by Professor Anne Catherine Abecassis. Anne Catherine situated us in this former train station, built for the Universal Exposition of 1900, at the advent of the electric engine. In the 1980’s the outdated rail station was converted into a museum and it now displays art works created between 1848 and 1914.

First, we walked upstairs for a look at an ornate, highly decorated waiting room that was very much in fashion when the train station was built. This room served as a visual reference point for the rest of our lecture. In order to better contextualize the revolutionary style the modern painters were adopting, we were asked to think about this room as a benchmark and indicator of poplar tastes for beauty and art at the beginning of the 20th century.

We started our tour on the right side of the museum’s nave to view paintings by Ingres and David, revered by the French Academy of Fine Art. During the 19th century, the Academy set and monitored notions of art and aesthetics, and appropriate subjects included biblical or classical themes.

On the opposite side of the Orsay, we viewed works by Courbet and Manet, characterizing a radical shift in style and subject matter, also created during the reign of the French Academy. Anne Catherine discussed Manet’s Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe to elucidate the transformation that was taking place in painting.

Later in the lecture, we viewed the Impressionists Degas and Monet and the Neo-Impressionists Gauguin and Seurat. We have walked through a major transformation in fine arts; it was a morning filled with art history insights and masterpiece paintings.

June 12, Ulrike Kasper's Architectural tour of Baron Haussmann’s “modern” Paris

We toured the city today with architecture professor Ulrike Kasper. We met at the Opera Garnier and began our walking lecture with a discussion of Baron Haussmann’s design of “modern” Paris. With Ulrike we walked through the covered glass passages of the 19th century, to the Palais Royal, the Louvre and beyond.

She wove together the classic architectural history of Paris with the contemporary buildings and architectural installations.



That evening we met with Art Historian Anne Catherine Abecassis at the Pompidou Center. This contemporary art museum located in the center of Paris provided the background for the continuation of our lecture on modern painters. Looking at the paintings of Matisse, Delaney, Picasso and Gris, Anne Catherine rounded out the discussion of the major transformation that was taking place in the visual arts the beginning of the 20th century. Her lecture culminated in a discussion of Duchamp’s “Fountain” ready-made and the symbolic role it played in brining forth the conversation: “What is art? What are the essential characteristics of art? And who defines art?”