The Repetition Centre Pompidou-Metz

The history of Western art in the 20th and 21st centuries is marked by the figure of invention, a clear synonym of freedom of creation, which allows it to assert its autonomy in relation to utilitarian, decorative or ornamental practices. Since the earliest times of humanity, patterns and figures have been repeated, as shown both in religious imagery and in wallpaper or fabric prints. A... Show more

The history of Western art in the 20th and 21st centuries is marked by the figure of invention, a clear synonym of freedom of creation, which allows it to assert its autonomy in relation to utilitarian, decorative or ornamental practices. Since the earliest times of humanity, patterns and figures have been repeated, as shown both in religious imagery and in wallpaper or fabric prints. A number of artists have nevertheless adopted repetition as a method and as an object, finding in it, for a few works or in a more systematic way, a mode of work or a subject.

The collections of our museums are generally based on the search for masterpieces, these exceptional moments, seemingly all in one piece, where all the artists' means would converge, a principle questioned by the inaugural exhibition of the Center Pompidou- Metz,masterpieces?, in 2010-2011. To show how creation can also proceed by repetition, whether this is a means, a process or even the very subject of the artists, is to go against this simplistic notion. This exhibition focuses on this, through a subjective choice in the collections of the National Museum of Modern Art – Center Pompidou, enriched with a selection of major complementary works, cutting through the stylistic, iconographic, sociological and chronological classifications that usually organize the presentation.

This investigation takes on its full meaning when we understand, through the discovery of prehistoric Neronian artefacts in the Mandrin cave (in the Drôme), executed 56,000 years ago, that Homo Sapiens distinguished himself of other human species by the application of systematic methods, corresponding to a process of repetition intended to improve the effectiveness of its tools, where the Neanderthals (who preceded and followed them in the Mandrin cave) showed a freedom and a diversity seemingly larger approaches. To be an artist is also to repeat.