11/13/17 - The Petit Palais in Paris, a traditional museum housing an extordinary collection, mainly  with French artworks from the 19th and 20th century, was intervened by photographer Andrés Serrano (EEUU, 1950). It's not the first time this happens: for the past three years, the Petit Palais summons the artworks of a contemporary artist to dialogue with the permanent collection. It's usually an opposing figure in the international artistic scene and Serrano certainly is part of that group. Of course, inserting a contemporary artwork in between the Delacroixs, Courbets and Cezánnes on display is a huge challenge but the photographer is quite successful at it. 

The curatorship displayed Serrano's works in panels that allow us to see the photos and, at the same time, the classic artwork they are related to. The comparison is very educational because we can understand the changes between in past and present of humankind.

Mary (Nomads), by Andres Serrano (1990)

cibachrome edition 2/4 

Behind: La Femme aux gants (La Parisienne), by Charles Giron (1883)

Technique: oil on canvas

Les Halles, by León Lhermitte (1895)

Technique: oil on canvas

Meat. Old City of Jerusalem, by Andres Serrano (2014)

Tirage Pigmentaire, 2014

On the right: Untitled XXV-1 (Torture), by Andres Serrano (2015)

Tirage Pigmentaire

La Vallé de Larmes, by Gustave Doré (1883)

Technique: oil on canvas

On the right: St Michael’s Blood, Part I, Part II (Inmersions), by Andres Serrano (1990)

On the left: Le Printemps, by Paul Cézanne 

Technique: oil on canvas

On the left: Ryan McMahon and Shelley Cornetta McMahon (The Residents of New York), by Andrés Serrano (2014)

Sans asile, by Fernand Pelez (1883)

The photos show Serrano's traditional education, himself an admirer of Renaissance paintings and Baroque's, specially Caravaggio's. His works force us to fix the eye and contemplate (in the classic sense of observing an artwork) those things that we avoid or ignore.

This museum, in spite of being a very visited point by international tourism, only displays the signs in French. On the other hand, the extraordinary montage is shadowed by the lights that reflect on the surface of the photos, visually affecting them.