Paris Weekend Break

Pompidou Center

One of the landmark sights of Paris is the “Hi-Tec” Pompidou Center. This building is the home of, among other things, the National Museum of Modern Art (a masterful and diverse collection of works from many modern schools and artists).

The Pompidou Center (better known locally as Beaubourg) remains one of Paris’ most popular tourist attractions and it is one of the world most visited museums. It offers no less than one million square feet of exhibition space and consists of four major specialist zones, namely, the museum of modern art, a reference library, a centre for industrial design and a centre for music and acoustic research.

What you will find in the Pompidou Center

The George Pompidou Center isn't just an art gallery, additionally it also houses a library, a video library, a graphic laboratory, along with architectural and design collections, an industrial creation center, an institute specializing in experimenting with sounds and music and much more.

Perhaps the most amazing element of the Pompidou Center is a huge room where everybody can wander around without getting bored - almost like a giant brightly coloured amusement park.

The latest (current) exhibitions are usually located in the main hall of the Pompidou Center. This hall occupies a total space of approximately 2,000 square meters.

History

The centre is named after George Pompidou who was president of France from 1969 to 1974. The exhibition centre was opened on January 31, 1977.

The Pompidou Center is housed in the centre of Paris in a building famously designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The Centre was built by GTM and completed in 1977. The architecture is said to symbolize the spirit of the 20th century. The museum first opened to the public in 1977 and since that time some 6 million people have passed through the Pompidou Centre 's doors each year.)

The Pompidou Centre “revolutionized museums”, according to the “Pritzker” jury, who claimed that it transformed what had once been elite monuments into popular places of social and cultural exchange. Even so, the futuristic building’s exposed and brightly coloured pipes caused a scandal when the Pompidou Centre first opened.

How the Pompidou Center came into being

The centre was the brainchild of President Georges Pompidou. He wanted to create an original cultural institution in the heart of Paris completely focused on modern and contemporary art. He wanted to see the visual arts rub shoulders with theatre, music, cinema, literature and the spoken word. The intention was to create a single visitor resource for art in all of its forms.

Since the museum opened, some 6 million people have pass through its doors each year, giving a total of over 190 million visitors in its 30 years of existence.

Exhibitions and what to see in the Pompidou Center

After significant renovation from 1997 to 1999, the Pompidou Center re-opened to the public on 1 January 2000. It now offers expanded museum space and many enhanced reception areas.

The Museum has large collections of paintings spanning the 20th century and including works by famous artists like, Picasso, Braque, Max Ernst, Magritte, Chagall, Matisse, Delaunay, Kandinsky, Klee and many more.

The Pompidou Center is the home of the National Museum of Modern Art. The museum's temporary exhibitions are stunning and recent presentations have included retrospectives on the likes of Jean Cocteau, Jean Nouvel, and Sophie Calle.

One level of the Pompidou Center is devoted to modern art, including major works by Matisse, Modigliani, Marcel Duchamp, and Picasso and the other to contemporary art from the 1960s onwards.

Twenty years on the escalator remains a visual phenomenon. The plaza continues to thrive, but the exhibition spaces themselves, and the rather dry, regular block shape of the overall building, are beginning to come across as less aesthetically adventurous than was once the case. Even so the structure remains inspiring and thought provoking.

Opening times

The museum and temporary exhibitions are open from 11 am to 9 pm, with late night opening until 11 pm for exhibitions on level 6. The museum is closed on Tuesdays and 1 May.

The Public Reference Library (Bpi), which has a special entrance on Rue Beaubourg, is open from midday to 10 pm (except at weekends when its opening hours are the same as the museum).

Museum tickets can be used on the same day for all the current exhibitions, the National Museum of Modern Art and the Brancusi Workshop.

Location

Because of its location, the Pompidou Center is known locally as Beaubourg and it is situated in the centre of historic Paris within about one kilometre of Notre Dame and the Louvre gallery. It also sits on the edge of the densely populated and tourist frequented medieval quarter.