Corps et âmes

From March 5th 2025 the Bourse de Commerce is drawing some one hundred works from the Pinault Collection to present the exhibition “Corps et âmes”, an exploration of representations of the body in contemporary art. From Miriam Cahn to Duane Hanson, Georg Baselitz to Ana Mendieta, David Hammons to Marlene Dumas, and Arthur Jafa to Ali Cherri, some forty artists have used painting, sculpture, photography, video, and drawing to explore the connections between body and soul.

“In the generative curves of the Bourse de Commerce, as an echo of the rondo of bodies that populate the vast, painted panorama encircling the building’s glass dome, the exhibition ‘Corps et âmes’ explores the significance of the body in contemporary thought through the works of some forty artists in the Pinault Collection. Freed from all mimetic constraints, the body — whether photographed, sculpted, drawn, filmed, or painted — does not cease to reinvent itself, thereby granting art an essential organic quality that allows it, like an umbilical cord, to take the pulse of the human body and soul. Art seizes the energies and vital flows of our thoughts and inner lives to create a socially committed, humanist experience of otherness. Forms metamorphose, returning to figuration or freeing themselves from it, to grasp, hold on to, and allow the soul and consciousness to reveal themselves. It is no longer a matter of merely painting bodies, instead capturing the forces that run through them, to bring to light what is — especially those from colonial heritage, uprooting and exil”. — Emma Lavigne, General Curator of the exhibition.

In addition to thematic essays developing the theme of the exhibition, the catalog also includes notes highlighting the reproduced works.

With works by: Georges Adéagbo / Terry Adkins / Gideon Appah / Diane & Allan Arbus / Michael Armitage / Richard Avedon / Georg Baselitz / Cecilia Bengolea / Constantin Brancusi / Miriam Cahn / Claude Cahun / Ali Cherri / Peter Doig / Marlene Dumas / Robert Frank / Latoya Ruby Frazier / Philip Guston / Anna Halprin & Seth Hill / David Hammons / Duane Hanson / Kudzanai‑Violet Hwami / Anne Imhof / Arthur Jafa / William Kentridge / Deana Lawson / Sherrie Levine / Kerry James Marshall / Ana Mendieta / Zanele Muholi / Senga Nengudi / Antonio Obá / Irving Penn / Man Ray / Robin Rhode / Auguste Rodin / Niki De Saint Phalle / Mira Schor / Lorna Simpson / Wolfgang Tillmans / Kara Walker / Lynette Yiadom-Boakye