The Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris is devoting a major retrospective to Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955), the first in France for twenty years. Organized chronologically, the exhibition will bring together some 200 paintings, drawings, prints and notebooks. It aims to offer a fresh perspective on Staël’s work, presenting alongside his best-known paintings a rich selection of works rarely, if ever, shown to the public.

Far from the myths surrounding Staël, the retrospective will focus on the artist and his graphic and pictorial research. It will show a painter at work, whether facing the landscape or in the silence of his studio. Indifferent to the fashions and quarrels of his time, the artist remains fascinated by the spectacles of the world, whether confronted by the sea, a soccer match or a piece of fruit on a table.

From the dark, matte canvases of the 1940s to the luminous paintings he produced before his suicide in 1955, the retrospective will present his work as the urgent pursuit of an increasingly dense and concise art. By emphasizing the experimental dimension of de Staël’s work, the exhibition will enable visitors to rediscover this pictorial quest of rare intensity.