From the seventeenth century to the early part of the twentieth century, artistic production in France was controlled by artistic academies which organized official exhibitions called salons. In France, academies are institutions and learned societies which monitor, foster, critique and protect French cultural production. Academies were more institutional and more concerned with criticism and analysis than those literary gatherings today called salons which were more focused on pleasurable discourse in society, although certain gatherings around such figures as Marguerite de Valois were close to the academic spirit.
History
Academies first began to appear in France in the Renaissance. In 1570 Jean-Antoine de Baïf created one devoted to music and poetry, the Académie de Poésie et de Musique, inspired by Italian models. The first half of the seventeenth century saw a phenomenal growth in private learned academies, organized around a half-dozen or a dozen individuals meeting regularly. By the middle of the century, the number of private academies decreased as academies gradually came under government control, sponsorship and patronage. The first private academy to become "official" and to this day the most prestigious of governmental academies is the Académie Française, founded in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu. It is concerned with the French language. In the fine arts, the Académie de Peinture et de Sculpture was founded by Cardinal Mazarin in 1648 and was soon followed by a number of other officially instituted academies: the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661; the Académie Royale des Inscriptions et Médailles in 1663 ; the Académie Royale des Sciences in 1666; the Académie d'Opéra in 1669 ; and the Académie Royale d'Architecture founded by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1671. In 1793 during the French Revolution the academies were suppressed, but in 1795 the Institut national des sciences et des arts was established and consisted of three Classes: Sciences Physiques et Mathématiques ; Sciences Morales et Politiques ; and Littérature et Beaux-Arts. In 1803 under Napoleon the name was changed to Institut National de France, and it was reorganized into four Classes: 1. Sciences Physiques et Mathématiques; 2. La Langue et Littérature Françaises ; 3. Histoire et Littérature Anciennes ; and 4. Beaux-Arts. The Institut was renamed the Institut de France in 1806 and Institut Impérial de France in 1811. The Institut was renamed again in 1814 under the Bourbon Restoration to Institut Royal de France, and in 1816, the older appellation of "Académie" was revived, when it was reorganized into four sections: the Académie Française; the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres; the Académie des Sciences; and the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The last consisted of three subordinate academies, those of painting and sculpture, music, and architecture. In 1833 the earlier class, Sciences Morales et Politiques, which had been suppressed in 1803 under Napoleon, was revived as a fifth academy, the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.
The Académie de peinture et sculpture is responsible for the Académie de France in the Villa Médicis in Rome which allows promising artists to study in Rome.
Salons as exhibitions
From the 17th to the 20th century, the Académie de peinture et sculpture organized official art exhibitions called salons. To show at a salon, a young artist needed to be received by the Académie by first submitting an artwork to the jury; only Académie artists could be shown in the salons. Salons were started under Louis XIV and continued from 1667-1704. After a hiatus, the salons started up again in 1725. Under Louis XV, the most prestigious Salon took place in Paris in the Salon Carré of the Louvre, but there were also salons in the cities of Bordeaux, Lille and Toulouse. In 1881, the government withdrew official sponsorship from the annual Salon, and a group of artists organized the Société des artistes français to take responsibility for the show. In the 19th century, the salon system frequently incited criticism from artists for the bland or academic quality of the artwork, while radical artists would not be received or would be greatly censored by the "respectable" public. The salon system thus forced radical and modern artists to seek alternative or unofficial exhibition sites. This is especially true for Impressionists and Fauvism. See also:
Salon - the expression "salon" is also used to refer to literary gatherings
France has been the host of a number on important international fairs and exhibitions:
The Exposition universelle de Paris — a kind of World's Fair — was held in Paris in 1889. It was for this fair that the Eiffel Tower was built.
The Grand Palais and the Petit Palais were built as exhibition halls for the Exposition Universelle.
Paris was also the site of two world exhibitions of decorative arts:
The Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in 1925 launched the style called "Moderne", or "Streamline Moderne" or "Art Deco".
The subsequent exhibition, the "Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne ", in 1937 saw, to a certain degree, the last flowering of this style; the Palais de Tokyo was built for this exhibition.
Today, France is host to one of Europe's most prestigious international contemporary art fairs, the FIAC, and to Paris Photo. Other art fairs and salons include:
