Musée des Arts Décoratifs
François Mathey served as director and chief curator of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where he became known for his progressive exhibition program that blurred the boundaries between fine art, design, craft, and contemporary visual culture.
Located within the Louvre complex on the rue de Rivoli, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs was one of France’s major institutions dedicated to decorative arts, design, interiors, fashion, and material culture, while under Mathey it also became an important site for experimental and contemporary exhibitions during the postwar decades.
Exhibitions & Events
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A major exhibition devoted to Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the first large-scale photography exhibitions in France
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Exhibition of Fernand Léger
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Exhibition of Marc Chagall
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Retrospective of Jean Dubuffet, his first in France
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Exhibition of Mark Tobey in the early 1960s, among the first major presentations of an American painter at the museum
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Exhibition of Henri Matisse, including early public presentations of the papiers découpés
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Exhibitions of Balthus, Roger Bissière, and François Stahly
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Retrospective of Paul Delvaux and the first posthumous retrospective of Yves Klein in 1969
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