Exhibition at the museum

Art is in the Street

From March 18th to July 06th, 2025
Théophile Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923)
La Rue, 1896
© Bibliothèque nationale de France
Through an exceptional collection of nearly 300 works, "L'art est dans la rue" explores the spectacular rise of the illustrated poster in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. Organized in partnership with the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the exhibition is the first of its kind on this scale. In fact, no major event in Paris has ever been devoted to this social phenomenon, bringing together so many outstanding works by the "Masters of the Poster". Bonnard, Chéret, Grasset, Mucha, Steinlen, Toulouse-Lautrec... Conceived as an immersion into the visual universe of the 19th century city, the exhibition traces the golden age of the artistic poster, analyzing the social and cultural changes that favored its development, in dialogue with a unique collection of posters, paintings, photographs, costumes, sculptures and decorative objects that evoke the exuberant world of the street at the turn of the century.

Posters transform the city

Paintings, drawings, prints and photographs all depict the proliferation of images that took over the smallest bit of empty space: walls and palisades of course, but newsstands, Morris columns, urinals and the metro as well, and even human beings, who turned themselves into sandwich men. Such supports constituted the exhibition walls of a new visual world that sought to catch the eye of passers-by. Transformed by imposing Haussmannian architectural works, cleaned up and well equipped, the “modern” street was also one of the key areas for political expression and social demands. Dangerous for the powers that be, this haven of advertising was, in the art critic Roger Marx’s words, “the teeming, ever bustling street, where universal suffrage is discussed and pronounced" (Masters of the Poster, 1895).

The avant-garde is in the street

In social, cultural and artistic fields alike, the street was a living environment and exhibition venue all in one, as well as a subject for depiction. The posters of the 1880s to 1900s carry within them the fantasies and realities of an era. The result of technical advances and the emerging consumer society, they were a sphere that gradua[1]lly attracted the interest of some of the time’s great artists. In the wake of Jules Chéret, whom the press nicknamed “the Poster King”, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Eugène Grasset, Alphonse Mucha, Théophile Alexandre Steinlen and the Nabis Pierre Bonnard, Henri-Gabriel Ibels and Edouard Vuillard, along with Félix Vallotton, were hailed as masters of the genre. The critics took possession of the phenomenon, highlighting the visual qualities of the “modern poster” and its role in democratizing access to art. The poster also became a collector’s item and exhibition subject, and art lovers fell prey to “poster mania”. Rising to the rank of artwork, it entered a system similar to print dealing, with such dealers as Edmond Sagot specializing in the sale of posters.

The poster, social art

In the late 19th century, the emerging myth of a “Belle Époque” tended to gloss over the street of rioters and indigents, replacing it with an idyllic street of pleasure, entertainment and accessible consumption. The poster was the medium for assertion of newly liberalized practices, including: frequentation of cabarets, the rise of sport, and exacerbated femininity. Available to one and all due to its exhibition in the middle of the street, it could entertain social ambitions and become the preferred medium of “art for all”. Anarchist and libertarian circles played a key role in the appearance of the first political images on walls in the public space. Initially, they focused on advertising relating to the activist press. In the early <sup>20</sup>th century, such artists as Jules Grandjouan invented a mural language designed to impact public opinion in the public space. Breaking with the intimate vision provided by newspaper cartoons, this new form of rhetoric was to have a long-term effect on political messaging

  1. Monday Closed
  2. Tuesday 9.30am - 6.00pm
  3. Wednesday 9.30am - 6.00pm
  4. Thursday 9.30am - 9.45pm
  5. Friday 9.30am - 6.00pm
  6. Saturday 9.30am - 6.00pm
  7. Sunday 9.30am - 6.00pm
Tarifs
Time slot full rate
€16
Time slot reduced rate
€13
Enfant & Cie
€13
Nocturne rate
€12
-18 year olds, -26 year old residents of the EEA
Free
Events, tours and articles

Autour de « L'art est dans la rue »

Find out more

Exhibition artworks