Feud Over Paris Opera’s Ceiling Continues

Feud Over Paris Opera’s Ceiling Continues By Afton MarkayThe controversy over the artwork on the ceiling of Paris Opera has reemerged more than 60 years later. In 1960, French Culture Minister André Malraux commissioned a painting from artist Marc Chagall to modernize the ceiling of the Opéra Garnier which would conceal the 19th-century work of Jules-Eugène Lenepveu. The decision leaves people divided to this day. Chagall’s art features 14 composers and is glued to a plastic shell placed over Lenepveu’s painting. “I remember that my father had insisted that his ceiling be removable,” Chagall’s son told Le Monde. Some critics suggested that Malraux interrupted Garnier’s aesthetic continuity with Modern art, while institutions such as New York’s Lincoln Center installed its own pair of Chagall opera murals. Today, Arnaud Carayon, Lenepveu’s great-great-great-great-grandnephew is determined to restore his ancestor’s creation. In a letter to President Macron earlier this year, Carayon suggested “an alternating ceiling at the Opéra, perhaps every 10 years,” so the Chagall and Lenepveu paintings will both be displayed. He received a response from the Macron’s office saying that the president was “particularly attentive” to the matter. This matter is likely to have resurfaced due to the ongoing renovations as the Paris Opera. Read Related Stories Categories News