Renoir, Matisse, and the temptation of spectacle

Will the museum be visited like the cinema? Sadly, yes, nowadays. In search of novelty, visitors and spectators ask the same question: what are the releases of the week, what are the exhibitions of the season? To choose, one needs an appealing poster, a catchy title and, of course, stars, Tom Cruise or Pierre Niney, Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse... The museum is no longer anything more than a place for temporary exhibitions, and the temporary exhibition a cultural product among others, subject to the same demands of visibility, communication and audience numbers, even profitability. Is it not supposed, however, to stem from scholarly research, to enrich knowledge about a famous artist, to shed light on a lesser-known master?
Not necessarily.
It may have a simpler aim: to impress the crowd. And why not? One must admit that the two exhibitions devoted respectively to Renoir and Matisse are dazzling, offering a perfect illustration of this desire now to attract the public rather than advance the history of art.

The Musée d’Orsay has chosen an enticing title, “Renoir and Love”, a winning combination of a famous painter and a universal theme, undeniably appealing, though not particularly revealing of the content. More than romantic love, it is the joy of living that bursts from the master’s canvases, which in fact worked against him, as he himself wrote: “I know well that it is difficult to make people accept that a painting can be truly great while remaining joyful”. Behind the title, the exhibition’s narrative claims to be bold, somewhat exaggerated nonetheless, making Renoir the victim of an injustice: the poor man suffered from the excessive popularity of his works, reproduced on ordinary objects, from postal calendars to…