Palais de Tokyo
Published on Monday, 12 August 2013 in Museums & Expos - Hôtel des Métallos
On the Trocadéro heights of the north bank of the river, facing the Eiffel Tower, stand the brutally resplendent Palais de Tokyo and Palais de Chaillot. They house some of the city’s best art museums: the Site de Création Contemporaine, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Cité de l’Architecture.
The Palais de Tokyo, contemporary with the nearby Chaillot, houses the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. While it’s no competition for the Pompidou Centre, the cool modernist setting is more fitting – and more contemplative – for a collection focused on early twentieth-century, Paris-based artists. Braque, Chagall, Delaunay, Derain, Léger and Picasso are well represented, and many works were expressly chosen for their Parisian themes. The enormous centrepieces are the two versions of Matisse’s glorious mural, La Danse, and Dufy’s gigantic La Fée Électricité, a mural commissioned by the electricity board to illustrate the story of electricity from Aristotle to the then-modern power station. Temporary exhibitions fill the ground-floor space.
To get to the Palais de Tokyo from Hotel des Métallos, take Metro 9 @ Oberkampf, alight at Nation, take Metro 6 and alight @ Trocadero. You can enjoy the best view of Eiffel Tower from this point.
