Given the great importance attributed to this opening on Wednesday, December 3 in the Louvre, it remains to be seen where exactly this importance lies. Yes, after taking a look around, you will first see the much-publicized new paintings by Marlene Dumas hanging in the glossy renovated hall. From Wednesday they will also be on display for the public: nine painted humanoid heads, high on the wall above the entrance door behind the Porte des Lions.
The Amsterdam-based artist is therefore “the first female contemporary artist” with a permanent place in the Louvre, as international media have already indicated in recent weeks about this work by Dumas (72), from South Africa. “One of the greatest painters of our time,” is how Laurence des Cars, the first female general director of the Louvre since 2021, describes her choice of Dumas.
But is that what this opening is really about? Once you arrive at the Porte des Lions, you immediately notice that the paintings are part of a much larger project that the Louvre is carrying out. Due to the many tightened security measures since the jewelry theft in mid-October, it will take a while, but then we are finally behind the bronze lions of the new entrance gate. And this new ‘Galerie des cinq continents’, says Louvre spokesperson Alexis Gregorat, can be seen as “a preview of the Renaissance of the Louvre”.
Marlene Dumas’ nine paintings for the Louvre.
Rebirth
As a reminder, French President Emmanuel Macron announced at the beginning of this year that the Louvre, the largest museum in the world, would have to be brought into the future with a major renovation program in the coming years. That ‘rebirth’ starts with better accessibility, says Gregorat. The new, additional entrance at the Porte des Lions should make the Louvre ‘fresher and more accessible’ for visitors who want to go a step further than the Mona Lisa. You could also include the contemporary Dumas paintings, says Gregorat, although the concept itself is not new: the Louvre has already included contemporary artists in its collection in recent years.
However, the biggest innovation in this place starts one room later, behind Dumas’ heads. The new ‘Galerie des cinq continents’ is not only a faster route to the main buildings, these rooms also bring together heritage from all five continents – Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania – in a way that is new to the Louvre. Equality between Western and non-Western art forms is now paramount, instead of the Eurocentric division of the past. This new vision on the relationship between cultures has been applied in several European museums in recent years, but now also in the Louvre.
In the first room you will see two large statues, both depicting ‘motherhood’. One display case contains a 16th-century Mary and child from Spain, in the second – equally large – a 19th-century wooden sculpture of mother and child from the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean. They served a different purpose, but have the same theme, says Gregorat, and that is why they are now together here. ‘Dialogue’ is the word that the Louvre likes and often uses for this new wing. The museum, Gregorat explains, wants to “get in touch” more with the changing world outside the museum walls, and connect with the “tastes of new generations”.
First room in the new Galerie des cinq continents.
Photo Audrey Viger / Musée du Louvre
Connections
Only after seeing this ‘Galerie des cinq continents’ does Marlene Dumas’ work at the entrance also fall into place. Dumas has given her work the title ‘Liaisons’. Some of the painted heads are reminiscent of faces from her earlier work, but most are more abstract: in this context they also look like a ritual mask. The new arrangement was not yet in place when she started her paintings, says Dumas in an interview with a Louvre curatorbut she was inspired by the works of art from different cultures.
And although she does not want to “force” similarities with the Louvre collection in her paintings, she does see similarity in the creation itself: “Painting is exorcising fear […]. Creating a figure, a face, putting on a mask, imagining things we have never seen before; that is something that has been happening since the beginning of time, in all cultures.”
First room with images of motherhood.
Photo Audrey Viger/Musee du Louvre
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