As France is under “confinement”, all the museums have kept their doors closed to the public. While it is certainly a sad time for all the museumgoers, it is nevertheless a rare opportunity to (re)discover digitally three visual arts institutions that have been collaborating with Singaporean museums recently.
The Louvre
Greek masterpieces from The Louvre’s collection last came to Singapore in 2008-2009 for an exhibition at the National Museum of Singapore, telling the story of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. A decade after this initial collaboration, why not reconnect with one of the most prestigious museums in the world?
The Louvre proposes virtual tours to discover specific exhibitions such as “The Advent of the Artist”, “Egyptian Antiquities”, “Remains of the Louvre’s Moat” or “Galerie d’Apollon”. The museum also proposes a virtual reality experience staring its most famous piece: download “VR – Mona Lisa” App” now and immerse yourself in the story bringing back to life the Mona Lisa, Da Vinci’s masterpiece!
Virtual Tours: https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne#tabs
Mona Lisa App: https://www.louvre.fr/en/leonardo-da-vinci-0/realite-virtuelle#tabs
The Centre Pompidou
The Centre Pompidou and the National Gallery Singapore presented together the exhibition “Latiff Mohidin. Pago Pago (1960-1969)” about the famous Malaysian painter in Singapore in 2016 before the exhibition went to Paris in 2018. The jointly curated programme, with a crossover approach to modern creation in Europe and Southeast Asia, was an extension of the innovative project “Reframing Modernism: Painting from Southeast Asia, Europe and Beyond”.
Dig further in the collection and exhibitions of the Centre Pompidou by visiting its YouTube channel to learn more about the pieces created by painter Francis Bacon during the last 20 years of his work, or the retrospective on Christian Boltanski and his 50 years of practice.
Guided tours on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMmB6sRDf_aka92CTX–Trw
More info on the Centre: https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en
Musée d’Orsay
The Musée d’Orsay, one of Paris’ most renowned museums thanks to its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces, came to the National Museum of Singapore in 2011-2012 with an exhibition entitled “Dreams & Reality: Masterpieces of Painting, Drawing & Photography of the Musee d’Orsay”. The exhibition gave Singapore residents a rare opportunity to discover over 140 salon, realist, impressionist and post-impressionist works from great painters such as Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas.
Orsay came once again in 2017-2018 with the exhibition “Colours of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay”, this time at the National Gallery. The exhibition featured over 60 masterpieces, including key works by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edouard Manet, Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne, and told the story of impressionism through the colours they used at different stages in their careers.
Located on the left bank of the Seine River and housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station, the Museum showcases a diverse collection of paintings, sculptures, furniture and photography. Discover online today the impressive collections of the museum by strolling digitally through its galleries on Google Arts and Culture.
Virtual Tours: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/musee-dorsay-paris
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
Edouard Manet (1832-1883), Le déjeuner sur l’herbe (The Luncheon on the Grass), 1863. Donation Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, 1906.
