The musée des Arts décoratifs, in the Louvre Palace, in Paris, drawing solely from its collections, features through november the 1st, the colour red, in all its dimensions, its perceptions.
The exhibition explores numerous domains in which red is an inescapable element, and the different symbolisms of this colour in all societies down the ages.
‘To say the ‘colour red’ is almost a pleonasm. Red is the colour par excellence […] the first of all colours’ (Michel Pastoureau, Dictionnaire des couleurs de notre temps).
Above: straw hat with indented peak, by David Shilling (1989)
Among the themes evoked are danger, hell, pleasure, power, luxury, dressing in red, the timelessness of red in the decorative arts and the various techniques and materials of red. A colour that symbolizes also fire and blood…
Musée des Arts décoratifs (Palais du Louvre)
The study Gallery
107, rue de Rivoli
75001 Paris
Phone reception: +33 (0)1 44 55 57 50
Through 1st of November 2009