Exhibition View of  "Colors! Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou"

A highly anticipated exhibition in 2026, "Colors! Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou", is presented at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum from January 24 to April 15, 2026. Based on the original concept of the Grimaldi Forum Monaco in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou, it offers both substantial academic value and an exceptional viewing experience.

 "Colors!" is one of Centre Pompidou's international touring exhibitions during the five-year construction and metamorphosis of the Paris museum. The exhibition brings together 86 20th-century masterpieces from Centre Pompidou's collection alongside works by Chinese modern and contemporary artists, presenting a modern history of color and a Sino-Western dialogue.

Exhibition View of  "Colors! Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou"

Curated by Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, and Dr. Luo Yi as the specially invited Chinese Co-Curator, the exhibition focuses on seven monochromatic spaces. It is also complemented by sound creations from composer Roque Rivas in collaboration with Ircam (Centre Pompidou's Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music), and olfactory installations by Alexis Dadier with the Fragonard perfume house. These distinctive elements collectively construct a unique, multi-sensory immersive environment, guiding audiences to reconsider the understanding of color in modern and contemporary art.      

The Opening Ceremony of  "Colors! Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou"

Centering on the core theme of "Color" and following the thread of "Evolutionary Trajectories of Modernism", it showcases the journey of innovation and exploration in modern art, covering key movements such as Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Art, Pop Art, Minimalism, and Conceptual Art. Highlights include the "textbook-level" original works such as: Pablo Picasso's Woman reading (Olga), Henri Matisse's The Back (III), Maurice de Vlaminck's The Red Trees, Marc Chagall's Lovers in Green, Salvador Dalí's The Rotting Donkey, Joan Miró's The Siesta, René Magritte's The Marches of Summer, Amedeo Modigliani's The Red Head, Chaïm Soutine's The Bellboy, Vassily Kandinsky's Circle and Square, Paul Klee's Rhythmical, Robert Delaunay's Circular Forms, Sun No. 2, František Kupka's The Yellow Scale, Fernand Léger's Large Black Divers, Theo Van Doesburg's Pure Painting, Kazimir Malevich's Black Cross, Yves Klein's IKB 3, Monochrome blue, Willem de Kooning's Untitled XX, Jackson Pollock's The Deep, Alberto Giacometti's Caress, Francis Bacon's Van Gogh in a landscape, Jean Dubuffet's Dhôtel nuancé d'abricot, Andy Warhol's Big Electric Chair, and Jean-Michel Basquiat's Slave Auction. Concurrently, works from Centre Pompidou, the Beijing Minsheng Art Museum collection, and pieces by 16 of the most influential contemporary Chinese artists also appear on the same "color wheel".

Pablo Picasso, Vase de fleurs et compotier [Vase of Flowers and Fruit Bowl], 14 September 1943,  Oil on canvas, 80.5 x 100 cm ⓒ Succession Picasso 2025

Salvador Dalí, L'Âne pourri [The Rotting Donkey], 1928, Oil, sand and gravel collage on wood, 61 x 50cm © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dali / VEGAP, Madrid 2025Chaïm SOUTINE, Le Groom [The Bellboy], 1925, Oil on canvas, 98 x 80.5 cmRobert DELAUNAY, Formes circulaires, Soleil n° 2 [Circular Forms, Sun no. 2], 1912 - 1913,Glue-based distemper on canvas, 100 x 68.5 cmYves KLEIN, IKB 3, Monochrome bleu [Monochrome Blue], 1960, Pure pigment and  synthetic resin on canvas mounted on wood, 199 x 153 cm © The Estate of Yves Klein c/o SACK, Seoul, 2025

The exhibition promises to be an unprecedented, comprehensive expression of Western and Eastern color within the map of world art history. Beijing Minsheng Art Museum has launched a diverse range of color-centric public education activities, encompassing academic lectures, parent-child aesthetic education, as well as color therapy workshops, aiming to create an immersive cultural interactive space and facilitate the dissemination of artistic value while nurturing the audiences both physically and mentally.  

View of the Forum themed "Sino-Western Exchange of Modern Colors"

A forum themed "Sino-Western Exchange of Modern Colors" was held after the opening ceremony. Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou, and Dr. Luo Yi, the specially invited Chinese Co-Curator, delivered keynote speeches. Meanwhile, round-table discussions were held around the themes of "Colors and Modern Art" and "Sino-Western Exchange in Visual Arts," moderated  respectively by Pei Gang, Editor-in-Chief of Artron. Net, and Xiao Ge, Editor-in-Chief of ifengart.net. Participants included: Shao Yiyang, Vice Dean of the School of Humanities at the Central Academy of Fine Arts; Chinese artist representatives Zhang Xiaogang and Xu Lei; Luo Yi, the specially invited Chinese Co-Curator; Dong Qiang, a Boya Distinguished Professor at Peking University; Chinese artist representative Fang Lijun; Didier Ottinger, Deputy Director of Cultural Projects at the Centre Pompidou; and Li Feng, Director of Beijing Minsheng Art Museum.

Exhibition View of  "Colors! Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou"

Beijing Minsheng Art Museum is a non-profit cultural and art institution registered with the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau. It opened to the public on June 25, 2015, and has been consistently rated as a AAAA-level social organization. The museum's "Civilization" series of major exhibitions have consecutively received the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Annual Top Ten Exhibitions and Public Education Project awards for three years.

Opened in 1977 in the heart of Paris, Centre Pompidou embodies a living and dynamic vision of culture—multidisciplinary, deeply rooted in the city, and open to the world. Built up over the years, its collection of modern and contemporary art now comprises more than 120,000 works, making it the richest collection in Europe and the second largest in the world. In 2025, Centre Pompidou embarked on a major transformation that will allow it to remain active throughout the renovation of the Beaubourg building, scheduled to reopen in 2030. Thanks to strong partnerships with allied institutions, the "Constellation" programme is now unfolding in Paris, across France, and internationally. Centre Pompidou began its collaboration in China—in Shanghai in particular—in 2019 with the West Bund Museum, consistently presenting an expanding programme of exhibitions alongside a wide range of cultural, educational, and public engagement initiatives.  

The exhibition is supported by the French Embassy in China and the French PIA Art Foundation and the Chinese art institution PuwooArts. The exhibition is chiefly sponsored by China Minsheng Banking Corp and has received full support from the Beijing Minsheng Culture and Art Foundation.  

About the Exhibition

Dates: January 24 – April 15, 2026

Venue: Beijing Minsheng Art Museum

Courtesy of Centre Pompidou and Centre Pompidou, edited by CAFA ART INFO.