Exhibitions

Exhibition Alexandre Lenoir. Par la force des choses

Paris, France

Alexandre Lenoir’s ghostly landscapes enter a dialogue with Monet’s Water Lilies, blurring the line between photographic memory and painted revelation.

Alexandre Lenoir (1992), "Par la force des choses", 2025

Image credit

Alexandre Lenoir (1992), "Par la force des choses", 2025 / Photo © Musée de l'Orangerie / Laëtitia Striffling-Marcu. © Adagp, Paris, 2026

Meet the artist

The Movement

Contemporary Art, Painting

ArtLovers Tip

Look closely at the edges of the figures. Lenoir uses a printer-like technique with masking tape that creates a fascinating tension between mechanical reproduction and the organic flow of paint—it is only visible when you stand inches from the canvas.

Exhibition Highlights - What you'll see

Alexandre Lenoir’s practice is a form of alchemy, transforming personal photographic souvenirs into expansive, melancholic landscapes. Born in 1992, Lenoir avoids the traditional brushstroke, instead using layers of masking tape and washes of color to let images emerge as if from a dream. This exhibition presents four new large-scale works designed to respond to the surrounding legacy of the Musée de l'Orangerie, where the artist explores the same fluid boundaries of light and water that once obsessed Claude Monet.

You're watching four monumental canvases that seem to ripple with the same liquid energy as the Water Lilies nearby. The surfaces are thick with history, built from hundreds of tiny adhesive strips that leave behind a textured precision softened by watery washes. As you move, the light catches the pigment, making the ghost-like figures and dense foliage appear to shift and dissolve, mimicking the natural rhythm of a living ecosystem.

Worth the trip

Direct Dialogue: Experience how Lenoir’s contemporary translational method answers Monet's Grand Decorations in the very building designed to house them.

Unseen Masterpieces: The exhibition features four significant new paintings created specifically for this space, offering a first look at the artist's most recent evolution.

Technical Mystery: Observe the intricate lattice of marks left by masking tape, a process that reconstructs digital memories into physical, tactile objects.

How to experience it

Begin by sitting with Monet’s Nymphéas to attune your eyes to the play of light before moving into Lenoir’s counterpoint. Notice how his figures feel like distant memories—present but unreachable. After leaving the museum, walk through the Tuileries Garden toward the Seine; the way the afternoon sun hits the river will suddenly look like a continuation of the canvases you’ve just left behind.

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