copyists exhibition centre pompidou metz louvre 1234748114

Over 100 contemporary artists, including Jeff Koons, Paul McCarthy, Julie Mehretu, Camille Henrot, Claire Tabouret, and Julien Creuzet, were invited to create copies of masterpieces from the Louvre's collection. Their works are now on view in the exhibition "Copyists" at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, a satellite of the Pompidou in northeastern France. The show features reinterpretations of iconic paintings such as Eugène Delacroix's *Liberty Leading the People* (1830), Giovanni Bellini's *Portrait of a Man* (ca. 1475–1500), and Théodore Géricault's *The Raft of Medusa* (1818–19), among others. Co-curators Donatien Grau and Chiara Parisi emphasize that the exhibition is about the act of copying itself, not just the resulting copies, and that it creates a dialogue between contemporary artists and historical masters.

The Louvre Invited 100 Contemporary Artists to Copy—and Reinterpret—Its Masterpieces. Here's What They Made

The Louvre invited 100 contemporary artists to create copies or reinterpretations of works from its collection, spanning antiquity to the 19th century. The resulting artworks—paintings, sculptures, audio recordings, and videos—are now on view in the exhibition "Copyists" at the Pompidou Center Metz, curated by Chiara Parisi and Donatien Grau, running until February 2, 2026. Artists were given an open-ended brief, leading to diverse outcomes from faithful reproductions to radical reinventions of masterpieces by Delacroix, Goya, and Vermeer.

The Unnameable Artists of the Canton Trade System

Art historian Winnie Wong’s new book, *The Many Names of Anonymity: Portraitists of the Canton Trade*, investigates the lives and legacies of 18th and 19th-century Chinese artists who produced works for Western traders under the Canton system. These artists, often dismissed by history as mere copyists or left anonymous in museum "tombstone" labels, created complex works that blended European techniques with Chinese traditions. Wong challenges the reductive category of "Asian export art," proposing instead the term "Canton trade painting" to better reflect the unique atmosphere of cultural exchange in Guangzhou.

Authentic Michelangelo

Michel-Ange authentique

Jean-René Gaborit, former head of Sculptures at the Louvre, has published a major new book, "Les Sculptures de Michel-Ange. Le vrai, l'incertain et le faux," which rigorously examines the authenticity of works attributed to Michelangelo. The 500-page volume, based on fifty years of study, categorizes the master's sculptural corpus into works of certain authenticity, lost-and-found pieces that spark debate, sculptures executed by others after his designs, and works mistakenly attributed due to stylistic similarities.