LACMA Presents “City of Cinema: Paris 1850–1907”
The story of how an obscure form of entertainment became the most powerful mode of visual expression in the 20th-century.
Before Hollywood became the epicenter of the film industry, Paris was the city in which this burgeoning art form first blossomed. Housed at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (LACMA), a new exhibition explores film from an obscure entertainment to the most powerful mode of visual expression in the 20th-century.
Made in conjunction with the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, “City of Cinema: Paris 1850–1907” presents paintings, sculptures, posters, prints, photography, and film to reflect the range of artistic experiments that culminated in cinema as a mass medium. Placing special emphasis on 19th-century Parisian visual culture, the show examines the way in which various pioneers, such as the Lumière brothers, Georges Méliès and Jules Chéret developed a new way to observe images.
The exhibition is currently on view at LACMA until July 10, but for those not in the LA area, you can check out a preview clip in the gallery above. Additionally, to acompanying the exhibition is a sumptuous catalog published by DelMonico Books, available to purchase on LACMA’s webshop for $55 USD.
In related news, Alvaro Barrington honors his heroes in the latest Blum & Poe exhibition.
LACMA
5905 Wilshire Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90036
