Golden age for artists when Paris was star of the show
New exhibition serves as an implicit reminder of the dynamism that the French capital has lost
”The Death of the Woman” by Marevna. Paris was the centre of artistic innovation a century ago
At the start of the 20th century Paris was humming with innovation and scandal, pushing back the boundaries of painting, sculpture, opera, ballet and photography.
The city also attracted the world’s greatest artists and writers – the likes of Pablo Picasso from Spain, Marc Chagall from Belarus, Amedeo Modigliani from Italy and Ernest Hemingway from the US.
Yet an exhibition on this most remarkable of periods — Le Paris de la Modernité (Modern Paris), 1905-1925 at Le Petit Palais museum in Avenue Winston-Churchill — also serves as an implicit reminder of what Paris has lost. If the City of Light stood at the centre of the world 100 years ago, that is no longer the case today.
![Man Ray spent most of his career in Paris](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F46c0a1a0-823f-11ee-ab78-b8f8e234f1ae.jpg?crop=4356%2C2904%2C0%2C0&resize=400&quality=3)
Man Ray spent most of his career in Paris
TELIMAGE
“In those days, you came to Paris if