Description
The Galeries nationales du Grand Palais are the exhibition halls in the north wing of the Grand Palais, near the Champs-Élysées. They host Paris's big temporary shows, the kind that draw queues around the block, inside one of the most spectacular buildings from the 1900 World's Fair.
Even before the shows, look at the building itself: a stone palace with a long colonnade, ornate ironwork, and a huge glass roof over a nave about 200 meters long and 50 meters wide. On the two corners of the facade, a pair of copper quadrigas by Georges Récipon race against the sky.
The galleries were created in 1964, when the culture minister André Malraux asked Reynold Arnould to turn part of the north wing into space for major exhibitions. The first great shows were a Picasso retrospective in 1966 and a presentation of African art. Later came Rubens, Renoir and many more, with Impressionist and modern painters in between.
The Grand Palais was built in a hurry for the 1900 World's Fair, together with the Petit Palais and the Pont Alexandre III: a stone palace "dedicated by the Republic to the glory of French art," with a nave of iron, steel and glass. Its troubles started early.
The ground under it kept sinking, because of a drop in the water table, and the shows did not help: airplanes hung from the beams, acid runoff from the horse shows. It hosted a riding competition every year from 1901 to 1957, and exhibitions of cars, aviation and household appliances.
In 1993 a piece of the glass roof fell from almost 35 meters up, and the great nave was closed. Ministry and city argued for years over who should pay to save it. In August 1944 the Resistance used it as a headquarters, and in the 1960s Le Corbusier even wanted it demolished.
Even before the shows, look at the building itself: a stone palace with a long colonnade, ornate ironwork, and a huge glass roof over a nave about 200 meters long and 50 meters wide. On the two corners of the facade, a pair of copper quadrigas by Georges Récipon race against the sky.
The galleries were created in 1964, when the culture minister André Malraux asked Reynold Arnould to turn part of the north wing into space for major exhibitions. The first great shows were a Picasso retrospective in 1966 and a presentation of African art. Later came Rubens, Renoir and many more, with Impressionist and modern painters in between.
The Grand Palais was built in a hurry for the 1900 World's Fair, together with the Petit Palais and the Pont Alexandre III: a stone palace "dedicated by the Republic to the glory of French art," with a nave of iron, steel and glass. Its troubles started early.
The ground under it kept sinking, because of a drop in the water table, and the shows did not help: airplanes hung from the beams, acid runoff from the horse shows. It hosted a riding competition every year from 1901 to 1957, and exhibitions of cars, aviation and household appliances.
In 1993 a piece of the glass roof fell from almost 35 meters up, and the great nave was closed. Ministry and city argued for years over who should pay to save it. In August 1944 the Resistance used it as a headquarters, and in the 1960s Le Corbusier even wanted it demolished.