Gothicisms

From the birth of the cathedrals to the Goth counterculture and fantasy, Gothic art truly has traversed the centuries. In ground-breaking fashion, the Louvre-Lens is presenting its first ever panorama of Gothic art from the 12th to the 21st century, from its emergence through to the neo-Gothic style and right up to the “Goths” of today. 

Gothic art is closely associated with the age of the cathedral builders. As the first pan-European movement, it inspired exceptional artistic forms endowed with unparalleled expressive force. Sculptures, art objects, graphic arts, painting, photography, installations and furniture are gathered here in a journey through some 200 works of art. Together they reveal the recurrences and continuity of these Gothic languages, which blossomed during medieval times, came to life again in the 18th and 19th centuries, and still inspire us now. But where does the word Gothic come from? Why is this colourful art today associated with a dark aesthetic of black, night and the fantastic? How can this endlessly recurring attraction be explained? This chronological journey is interspersed with forays into specific topics, touching on the Gothic script, music, film and literature. It is an immersion into history and into society’s collective imagination to understand the origins and singularity of the Gothic movement: unique, multifaceted and very much alive today. 

Exhibition curators:
General curator: Annabelle Ténèze, director of the Louvre-Lens
Scientific curator: Florian Meunier, chief heritage curator at the Department of Art Objects, Musée du Louvre
Scientific advisor: Dominique de Font-Réaulx, general heritage curator, specialising in the 19th century, special advisor to the President-Director of the Musée du Louvre
Associate curator: Hélène Bouillon, director of conservation, exhibitions and publications at the Louvre-Lens
Assisted by Caroline Tureck, head of publications and documentation at the Louvre-Lens
Scenography: Mathis Boucher, scenographer, Louvre-Lens

This project was made possible thanks to the support of the Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, Cité de l’architecture et du Patrimoine, Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Musée des Arts décoratifs de Strasbourg.

The exhibition was organised with the support of the Mécénat des Mutuelles AXA.