Exhibition at the museum

Sade. Attacking the Sun

From October 14th, 2014 to January 25th, 2015 -
Musée d'Orsay
Esplanade Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
75007 Paris
Map & itinerary
Franz von Stuck-Judith et Holopherne
Franz von Stuck
Judith et Holopherne, 1927
Collection particulière
© Droits réservés / DR

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade (1740–1814) completely transformed the history of both literature and the arts, first as an underground writer, and later by becoming a veritable legend in his lifetime.
The Divin Marquis's work is a radical questioning of issues of limits, proportion, excess, notions of beauty, ugliness, the sublime and the body image. He takes the way we look at things and sweeps away all our religious, ideological, moral and social presuppositions.
Following the analysis of the writer Annie Le Brun, a specialist of Sade, the exhibition will be focusing on the revolution of representation opened up by the author's writings. Topics addressed will be the ferocity and singularity of desire, deviation, extremes, the weird and the monstrous, desire as a principle of excess and imaginary recomposition of the world, through works by Goya, Gericault, Ingres, Rops, Rodin, Picasso...
The violent nature of some of the works and documents may shock some visitors.

The exhibition is now over.

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Detailed presentation of the exhibition

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