Career of a female painter: Suzanne Valadon

The Centre Pompidou pays tribute to Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938), an emblematic and daring artist, one of the most outstanding figures of her time.

On the fringes of the dominant artistic movements of her time, such as emerging cubism and abstract art, she fervently defended the painting of reality.
Valadon places the nude, whether female or male, at the heart of his work, representing bodies with authenticity and without voyeurism.

Suzanne Valadon has had a significant impact on the representation of the body in art, particularly through her approach to the nude, both female and male. She is considered a bold and iconic artist.

Valadon placed the nude at the center of his work, representing bodies without artifice or voyeurism.
She was the first woman to paint a large-scale frontal male nude. Her approach to the nude, as well as her work in general, is distinguished by its great freedom. She did not adhere to any dominant artistic movement of her time, preferring to paint reality. Her work highlights the resolutely modern character of her artistic approach.

The current exhibition at the Centre Pompidou highlights her pioneering role and underlines her often underestimated contribution to the birth of artistic modernity. The exhibition offers a unique insight into her work, revealing her friendly and artistic relationships with bohemian painters, as well as her influence on the Parisian art scene.

The exhibition is organized into five thematic sections that allow visitors to understand the scope, richness and complexity of his work:

• Learning by observation
• Family portraits
• “I paint people to get to know them”
• "The true theory is imposed by nature"
• The nude: a feminine gaze

And to continue the discovery of this unique woman's journey, a very beautiful graphic novel by Flore Mongin and Coline Naujalis has just been published.