Art Salon - Painting

The beginnings of art salons date back to the second half of the 17th century in France at exhibitions held under the royal patronage of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. The salon was an official exhibition of the French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris (Académie des beaux-arts) and its influence on the development of exhibition practice and art criticism is seen as entirely fundamental: the Paris salons were the first ever public exhibitions of fine art. From the second half of the 18th century until 1890, the Paris salon was the largest artistic exhibition in the Western world, and its influence on the reputation of the artist and the style of his work was absolutely fundamental. Until the first half of the 18th century exclusively members of the French Academy had the opportunity to exhibit within the context of the salon, and until the French revolution this was the preserve of only French artists, however eventually the rules were relaxed and the salons were made available to other artists, the selection of whom was nevertheless still subject to a professional panel composed of key representatives of the Paris Academy. At the beginning of the 19th century the Paris Salon enjoyed its greatest heyday and its influence on European art reached its peak, but the conservative constitution of the academic panel laid the foundations for its gradual decline. The failure to understand new directions such as realism and impressionism led to the establishment of a “Salon of the Rejected” (Salon des refuses) in 1863, and of the Salon of the Independents (Salon des indépendants) in 1884, which can be regarded as the cradle of 

modern art. 

 

The exhibition in its conception of installation of paintings in several rows above one another links back to the installation of the Paris salons. The principle of open entry however rather recalls the Salon of the Independents, which coined the phrase “no panel, no prizes”. The exhibition show more than 1000 paintings. The exhibited works are not subject to the selection of
a commission or any other classification or hierarchy. Art Salon is
a democratic arena, an arena for public participation and criticism.