ART STUDIOS

CLOSE COLLABORATIONS WITH CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS Casting The Casting Studio was created at the Louvre in 1794 at the request of artists who wished to draw inspiration from a corpus of what were considered major sculptures through well-made replicas . All these were ancient statues held in private or largely inaccessible collections. These masterpieces continue to inspire many contemporary artists to this day. Thanks to the Casting Studio, these artists can draw on the scope and quality of the collections as well as the unique expertise of the craftspeople of the Rmn Grand Palais. Since 2019, Daniel Arsham (United States) has had around one hundred crystal-encrusted reproductions made for exhibitions around the world, also available for sale. In 2021, a full- scale Victory of Samothrace was exhibited at the Kœnig Galerie in Berlin, along with some ten other pieces from the Studios. Christian Anderson (Denmark) combined plaster casting with 3D printing to produce a Cadaver Tomb full of mystery. Raphaël Denis (France) extended his project on the dispossession of artworks by showcasing his enshrouded casts of busts. Laurent Pernot (France), meanwhile, hollowed out the torso of Antinous and placed delicate flowers inside, in a poetic reference to the love that the emperor Hadrian harboured for him. Finally, two internationally-renowned artists called on the Studios for complex productions. Thanks to the ingenuity of the craftspeople of the Rmn Grand Palais, Martin Margiela (Belgium) was able to cast his fascinating Torsos in silicone, while the artist JR had perfectly-finished three-dimensional supports made as flawless mounts for photographs.

Chalcography For over 20 years, the Louvre has invited artists to engrave an original work on copper for the museums Chalcography collection, which features over 14,000 matrices. Half of these engravings are held at the Rmn Grand Palais Art Studios in Saint Denis. The prints made from them are sold at the museum and book shop of the Louvre and the boutiquesdemusées.fr website. In 2021, the Louvre invited two talented visual artists, Annette Messager and Rosanna Lefeuvre, to work with the craftspeople of the Rmn Grand Palais in recreating their work on copper. The craftspeople were fundamental to the design and production of these new prints, from the choice of engraving techniques to the selection of inks and paper. Annette Messager created a diptych entitled L Amour et la Mort (Love and Death), depicting Cupid painting death through a play on mirrors; death in turn paints the child god of love. This interpretation of ancient mythology is a reference to the collections of the Musée du Louvre, while employing a sober and subtle aesthetic reminiscent of ink spots. With Le corsage (The bodice), Rosanna Lefeuvre focused on the rich representations of fabrics and draperies in the Louvre s collection of paintings. This print, with its unique composition, features a bust wearing a dress made of tulle and draped velvet, both fabrics inspired by the layering techniques of German painter Hans Memling, as well as the dress of French artist Jean-Baptiste Greuze s The Milkmaid. Both creations were presented for the first time at the FIAC, followed by the Biennale, at the Grand Palais Éphémère.

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