Paper may be simple to look at, but it hides an ancient and fascinating history. More than 100 objects will be exhibited at the Louvre Abu Dhabi this summer, which recently announced its latest international exhibition: ‘Stories of Paper’, from April 20th to July 24th 2022.
The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Musée du Louvre and France Museums, with 16 French and international institutions and private collections. It has set itself the ambitious task of exploring the wonderful world of artistic expression via the medium of paper. Visitors will be able to enjoy around a hundred pieces of art, books, manuscripts, drawings and a reproduction of a house, which will be – you guessed it – in paper.
Most of these artworks will come from the Musée du Louvre and other places such as the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Centre Georges Pompidou, Sharjah Art Foundation and Zayed National Museum, in addition to private collections.
Visitors can look forward to a journey through the rich but sometimes overlooked history of paper through 12 distinct areas. These will showcase the various uses of paper over the centuries through themed sections, such as Plant-Based Origin, a Humble, Material, Colour, Movement, Relationship with Light and an Untruthful Material. Through this educational exhibition, visitors will be able to understand the tools and mechanisms used to create paper and discover diverse materials.
Paper has been with us for more than 2,000 years. Although the Romans were content with wax tablets, China had already invented them. From there, paper made its way across Korea and Japan and eventually up the Silk Road. It spread throughout the Middle East, but it was not until the 11th century that the first paper mills were documented. Consequently, it was not long before paper entered mass production in Europe. And even today, paper remains a common yet incredibly valuable commodity that has underpinned much of the modern world.
“This exhibition reflects on paper being one of humanity’s most important inventions, helping to document and preserve material for thousands of years.”, says Victor Hundsbuckler, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, at the Musée du Louvre. “Our ambition is to propose a global history of paper to prove that this medium is part of a common cultural heritage for people from the East and the West and develop a definition of paper that could be the universal thread between all the different cultural eras of the world.”
Highlights of the exhibition are said to include artworks such as Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of a Woman, Japanese prints by Katsushika Hokusai, and a 13th-century Double page from De Materia Medica. The exhibition will also be supported by rich cultural and educational program details, which will soon be announced.
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