The Eye

A French Street Artist Makes the Louvre Pyramid Disappear  

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JR makes the Louvre Pyramid disappear.

 

Copyright JR-art.net

The courtyard of the centuries-old Louvre Museum was inextricably altered in 1989, when the now-99-year-old Chinese American architect I.M. Pei planted a modernist glass pyramid in its midst. After the usual brouhaha, Parisians grew to cherish it. Now, 27 years later, internationally renowned French street artist JR has made the beloved landmark disappear.

How did the French photographer and artist, who has traveled the world plastering large-scale black-and-white photos on the landscape, pull off this neat trick? He wrapped the façade with a tarp printed with a photo of the portion of the Louvre Palace that is partially obscured by the pyramid, essentially making the pyramid vanish. The black-and-white of the trompe l’oeil photo gives the stone of the actual building a sepia tinge, and the juxtaposition of tones functions much like a flashback scene in a film that might be told in black and white or shot with a slightly different lens to signal the time jump.

Jr au louvre  © Jérémy Schneider HD

Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

JR_en cours d installation_17mai 2016  © JR-ART.NET

Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

What’s the point of covering up the pyramid, commissioned by late French President François Mitterrand? JR answered this question in an interview posted on the Louvre website.

“My work is about transmitting history to better understand the present and find echoes with our own times,” JR said. “By erasing the Louvre Pyramid, I am highlighting the way Pei made the Louvre relevant for his time, while bringing the Louvre back to its original state. The Pyramid is one of the most photographed French monuments. I am redirecting its energy, because people are going to have to move around it. They are going to look for the best angle to get the full impact of the anamorphic image, and really make the Pyramid disappear.”

JR  © JR-ART.NET 2014
JR jumps in front of his handiwork at the Louvre.

Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images