Christian Boltanski

  • 1944 - 2021
  • Born in 1944, in France

© Fondation Louis Vuitton / Martin Raphaël Martiq

Life and death, memory and forgetting are at the heart of his practice. Initially taking the form of reconstituted objects and grotesque sketches featuring himself, Boltanski began to record ordinary lives in 1969 – his own and those of anonymous people – using family photographs.

In The Collection

Exhibition of the Collection

From 27 October 2014 to 25 November 2014

Inaugural Hang

Curated to complement Frank Gehry’s architecture, the first hang displays a selection of emblematic works from the four themes of the collection (Contemplative, Pop, Expressionist, Music/Sound) by Christian Boltanski, Pierre Huyghe, Bertrand Lavier, Gerhard Richter and Thomas Schütte. As part of his commission for the auditorium, one room is dedicated to the works of Ellsworth Kelly.

Exhibition of the Collection

From 23 September 2020 to 3 January 2021

Crossing views

Parallel to the Cindy Sherman retrospective exhibition, the Fondation presents Crossing Views, a selection of works from the Fondation's Collection which was chosen in collaboration with Cindy Sherman. Echoing her work, the exhibition is centred on the theme of the portrait and its interpretation through different approaches and media: painting, photography, sculpture, video and installation. The exhibition brings together around twenty French and international artists, of different generations and backgrounds. It includes around sixty works, many of which have previously never been on display at the Fondation.

Exhibition of the Collection

From 11 April 2018 to 27 August 2018

In tune with the world

For the sixth selection of the Collection, the exhibition "In Tune with the World" unveils throughout the galleries of the Frank Gehry building a new choice of artists, of several different mediums, bringing together modern and contemporary works, most of which have never before been exhibited in these spaces.

Hors les murs

From 9 November 2017 to 31 March 2018

Christian Boltanski - Animitas

This presentation has been produced in the framework of the Fondation Louis Vuitton’s “Hors-les-murs” programme, showcasing previously unseen holdings of the Collection at the Espaces Culturels Louis Vuitton Tokyo, München, Venezia and Beijing, thus carrying out the Fondation’s intent to realize international projects and make them accessible to a broader public.