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Lille has enjoyed a total transformation in the past 25 years, but this Flemish city in northern France cannot be accused of sitting on its laurels. Not content with cleaning up its city centre and fantastic Beaux Arts museum, and converting the art deco swimming pool in Roubaix into one of the most exciting art galleries in France, it has three new exhibitions to tempt Brits looking for more than good food and wine and great shopping.

 

La Piscine in Roubaix
The first one, a real coup for the city, is a major exhibition of Degas at La Piscine in Roubaix (ends January 16 2011). La Piscine was converted from a pool into an art gallery by the same architect who converted the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, Jean-Paul Phillipon, so it’s somehow appropriate that the Degas exhibition comes mostly from that Paris museum.

The Degas exhibition contains roughly 150 bronzes by Degas, concentrating on his dancers, horses and his famous Dancer Aged 14, which Degas displayed at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition. Walking around the space it becomes very clear how obsessed Degas was with balance and the human – or equine – body. He clearly understood how a horse actually runs, with all four legs in a different position, and there is a clever reference to Edwuard Muybridge whose photos showed how wrong painters had been up until the invention of photography. Degas’ horse look almost weightless, and his female ballet dances too look effortlessly balanced. He also had a strange obsession with feet, maybe reflecting the dancers’ own fixation with the pain in their most vital body part.

There is no doubt though as to who the star of the show is though – Petite Danseuse de 14 ans (the 14-year-old girl), who caused a storm back in 1881 because she has real hair and a gauze tutu. The reaction was so strong that Degas withdrew her from public show, but here she is in all of her proud, elegant glory. Surrounding her are lots of bronzes from the models found in Degas’ workshop when he died in 1917, 73 of which were saved and reproduced. Almost all of the 73 are here.

The aspect which brings this exhibition to life is the room of photographs taken in Degas’ workshop of the wax models he created. They are intimate and human, and a lovely addition to the show.

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Degas is arguably the biggest exhibition at La Piscine since their Picasso show in 2004, but the rest of the museum is always worth a visit as well. It still has a substantial collection of Picasso ceramics, a Tamara de Lempicka and a stunning collection of Lalique and Galle glass. It is the building itself which is the biggest attraction, a glorious art deco pool converted into a lovely space but still with original touches such as men’s and women’s baths, changing rooms and the stained glass at each end of the pool. The art deco café is full of lovely details and a good spot for some post-culture caffeine, but if you fancy some post-culture shopping Maisons de mode is right next door, and offers designer clothes at quite high prices. Roubaix is easily reached from the centre of Lille by a 20-minute train or tram ride.

 

Lille Metropole Musee d‘art Moderne (LAM)

The second chance to indulge in a real treat for art lovers, especially if you love 20th-century art, is the Lille Metropole Musee d‘art Moderne, or LAM as it is thankfully known. Set in an attractive park, the museum was opened in 1983 and specialised in Art Brut, but has been closed for four years for renovation and a new extension. This has allowed a lot more space for the museum’s hugely impressive collection of paintings by Picasso, Braque, Leger, Miro and Modigliani.

 

The Cubist room (Room 3) is massively exciting, as it includes the world’s first Cubist painting, George Braque’s House And Tree. This is surrounded by a selection of Braques and Picassos, and it’s impossible to tell which ones are which – it is the closest Picasso ever got to plagiarism, and Braque never felt he got the credit he deserved.

After that room, consisting almost entirely of greens and browns, it’s almost a shock to the eyes to enter the Modigliani room. His colours are elegant and stunningly bright, and the eyes of his women famously blank – did he love them or was he a misogynist? His lover threw herself off a balcony the day after he died, but it’s undeniable he treated women appallingly. The paintings though are quite breathtaking.

LAM also has a large collection of contemporary French art, and some surprises such as Jack Kerouac’s original manuscript for On The Road and a video instillation of Andrei Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice. Ironically its other big draw for a museum that has just spent millions on an extension is the garden, looking gorgeous in the autumn light. This has sculptures by Picasso, Alexander Calder and Eugene Dodeigne, and plenty of seating for contemplation. It also offers plenty of viewpoints to look at the new extension, which is supposed to look like a hand being wrapped around the old building. Whatever you think of it from the outside, from the inside it lets in huge amounts of light and gives a lot more space to an excellent collection.
LAM is reached by Metro Line 1 from Lille to Villeneuve d’Ascq, then Bus 41 to Parc Musee.

 

Tri Postal

The third art venue in Lille is a recent addition, the Tri Postal, an old sorting office right in between the old Flanders trail station and the new Eurostar. It was converted in 2004 for Lille’s European Capital of Culture, and has staged some challenging exhibitions – too challenging in some cases. However now it has found the perfect exhibition to fill its vast white rooms over three floors, the Saatchi Gallery’s Silk Road. Visitors to the new Saatchi Gallery in London in the summer of 2010 will have seen some of these pieces before, but if you haven’t it’s a real surprise.

The exhibition features big, powerful pieces from China, the Middle East and India, many by women, and even if concept art is not your thing you will be amazed and dazzled by some of them. Zhang Huan’s Young Mother (2007) is a beautiful painting of a girl done with ash, that seems to disintegrate as you get closer to it. In Gallery 3 there is a work guaranteed to get a reaction. Old Persons Home (2007) by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu consists of 13 dummies of world leaders all confined to wheelchairs hopelessly bumping into each other. It will make you laugh, creep you out and eventually make you ponder life’s essentially silliness – brilliant.

There is some amazing work by Iranian women about the plight of women after the Islamic revolution, and Kader Attia’s Ghost (2007) is a moving portrayal of the fragility of the human body.

 

After a stuttering start Lille has now brought its culture up to the standard of its buildings, and is now not only an excellent city to visit for a weekend break but a serious player on the art scene. If you sometimes feel that going to exhibitions in Paris is a bit like going to war, Lille offers a viable alternative with a much more accessible – and cheaper – selection, in some brilliant buildings.

 

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