The Louvre Abu Dhabi has unveiled the specifics of its upcoming show, which will honor some of the world’s best works on paper. Stories of Paper, a collaboration between the Louvre Museum and France Museums, will feature works from 16 French and international art institutions and libraries, as well as a few pieces from private collections.
The exhibition, which will feature over 100 works of art and objects, including books, manuscripts, sketches, a house replica, and 13 modern artworks and installations, attempts to demonstrate the breadth of artistic expression that paper has enabled.
Carmontelle’s Figures Walking in a Parkland (1795) from the Louvre collection in Paris, a Munajat Ali, a Quran has written in fingernail calligraphy from the National Library of France, and a number of works by prominent contemporary Emirati and Middle Eastern artists, including Dana Awartani’s He is Who created the Heavens and Earth in Six Days, will all be on display.
The exhibition will take visitors on a 12-section trip through the history of paper, highlighting the key properties and different uses of paper throughout the centuries. Plant-based origin, A Humble Material, Colour, Movement, Relationship with Light, An Untruthful Material, Memory, Fragility and Resilience, Memory, Fragility and Resilience, Space, Possibility of a Collection, A Medium for Reproducing Artworks, and A Malleable Medium are among the topic sections. Stories of Paper will be accompanied by cultural and educational programs at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the details of which will be published at a later date.