With Art Basel Paris having firmly cemented its place in the French art calendar, museums have smartly begun saving their best exhibitions for the mid-October opening slots. That means there’s much to see around town, and for those here for only a few days, it can feel impossible to hit up all of these shows. It doesn’t help, either, that some of the more high-profile shows contain hundreds of works each.
This is a different situation than what happens when other Art Basel fairs take place. In Basel and Hong Kong, there are fewer museums. In Miami Beach, the exhibitions are typically vanity projects, so they aren’t worth regarding. But in Paris, the exhibitions are much richer.
There are eat-your-vegetables art historical surveys and exhibitions for rising and mid-career international talents alike. There are even off-kilter experimental shows that make you think. Below, a look at a few of some of Paris’s most buzzy exhibitions.