The Actor’s Paradox
08 july – 15 oct. 2006
To coincide with the sixtieth edition of the theatre festival, the Collection Lambert presents a summer show devoted to portraits and pictures of actors entitled ‘Figures de l’acteur,The actor’s paradox’, an allusion to Diderot’s famous treatise on acting. This exhibition confirms the festival’s intention to anchor its programme in contemporary art, and that of the Collection Lambert to explore the world of stagecraft.
In line with previous historically themed shows such as ‘Artists’ Collections’ in summer 2001, this show spotlights four centuries of theatre through over 400 artworks. A multi-facetted historic reference makes up the core of the exhibition, which is neither exhaustive nor chronological, instead evoking changing ways of depicting actors: not only their performances, postures, costumes, but also their rôle in society, from the courtisan to the prince’s closest advisor, from admiration to glorification, from widely-recognized exemplarity to ironic caricature, as well as models for future generations to emulate.
This show was made possible by two outstanding partnerships: the Comédie-Française has loaned a number of rare items, and the performing arts department at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France presents some prestigious printed works on the history of theatre.
The artists:
Louise Abbéma, Amaury-Duval, David d’Angers, A. Bert, Bib, Pierre Bismuth, Jacques-Émile Blanche, Paul Boyer, Slater Bradley, Brassaï, Candice Breitz, Jean-Jacques Caffieri, Leonetto Cappiello, Carolus-Duran, Georges Clairin, Chuck Close, Jean-François Colson, Maurice Couture, Charles-Antoine Coypel, Honoré Daumier, Eugène Delacroix, Achille Deveria, Édouard Dubuffé, Francisque Duret, Robert Fleury, Flore-David, Jules Franceschi, Jakob Gautel, Edmond Geffroy, Baron Gérard, Théodore Géricault, Jean-Léon Gérôme, André Gill, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, A. Girodet-Trioson, Douglas Gordon, Joseph Granié, Yamamotoya Heikichi, Roni Horn, Jonathan Horowitz, Nicolas Jacques, Michel Journiac, Anne Kessler, Joey Kötting, Kunisada 1er, Barbara Kruger, Adélaïde Labille-Guillard, Lafayette, Anthelme-François Lagrénée, René Lalique, Nicolas de Largillière, Mathieu Laurette, Bertrand Lavier, Hippolyte Lecomte, Simon-Bernard Lenoir, Zoé Leonard, Thérèse Leprat, Eva & Franco Mattes, Damon & Paul McCarthy, Adam McEwen, Mélandri, Nicolas Mignard, Edward Minazzoli, Joan Miró, Louis de Monard, Yasumasa Morimura, Alfons Mucha, Amélie Munier-Romilly, Vik Muniz, Nadar, Charles Nègre, Frédérique O’Connell, Lucien Pallez, Seb Patane, Yan Pei-Ming, Adam Pendleton, Elisabeth Peyton, Roger Pic, Pablo Picasso, Pierre & Gilles, Jean-Baptiste Poncet, Piter Janz Quast, Auguste Renoir, Reutlinger, Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury, Adèle Romance Romany, Mimmo Rotella, Sabourin, Napoléon Sarony, Antonio Saura, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, John Stezaker, Dennis Stock, Studio Harcourt, Catherine Sullivan, Vibeke Tandberg, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gabriel J. Thomas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Toyokuni I, Kuniyoshi Utagawa, Pierre-Antoine Vafflard, Kees Van Dongen, Carle Van Loo, Agnès Varda, Horace Vernet, Francesco Vezzoli, Élizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Andy Warhol.
Kenneth Branagh, Marcel Carné, John Casavettes, Arnaud Desplechin, Ernst Lubitsch, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ariane Mnouchkine, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Renoir, André Techiné, François Truffaut, Lars Von Trier, Orson Welles.