Pompidou Center to Reopen in Paris

PARIS —  The Pompidou Center, the world-class museum of modern art and agora of popular culture that looks more like an oil refinery than a painting gallery, reopens Jan. 1 after a 27-month, $88-million face lift and reorganization of its collection.

Exposition space for the National Museum of Modern Art, housed on two floors, has been increased by nearly 45,000 square feet. On a single level, 900 works chart the evolution of Western art in the first half of the 20th century, featuring masterpieces by Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso, Ernst, Giacometti and others. Great currents are represented, from Surrealists to American Abstract Expressionists. A separate level now focuses on art from the ‘60s until today, such as pop art by Warhol, op art by Vasarely and new figurative painting. In total, 1,400 of the museum’s 44,000 works will be hung.

Still a controversial landmark because of its gasworks allure, the Pompidou, popularly known as the Beaubourg, has become one of the most popular places for tourists to get a breathtaking view of Paris. In fact, said president Jean-Jacques Aillagon, if 900,000 people visit the Right Bank museum in an average year, 1.5 million others have been using the Pompidou as nothing but a “machine to see Paris.”

To get a postcard look at the French capital’s skyline, it used to cost nothing to ride up the Pompidou’s external escalators sheathed in giant see-through tubes. But starting Jan. 1, sightseers will have to purchase the same 30-franc (about $5) ticket in the ground-floor Forum lobby as art lovers.