More informations

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OPENING OF THE ROOMS OF VISIT:
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PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS :

The museum is opened every day except Tuesday, from 10 am till 6 pm.
Evacuation of the 3rd and 4th floor at 5:30 pm.
General evacuation of rooms at 5:45 pm.

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HOLIDAYS :

The museum is closed: on May 1st, in December 25th, and in January 1st.

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PRICES FOR ENTRANCE :
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PERMANENT COLLECTIONS :  7,50€

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TEMPORARY EXHIBITIONS : 8€

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Ticket valid for the day (you can leave the museum and reenter)
Guide in 8 languages for the permanent collections (free).

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THE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES :
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CONSULTATION :

You can consult the photographic archives of the Guimet museum by making an appointment with the person in charge.

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PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS :

Open on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

By appointment from 2 pm to 5 pm.

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THE LIBRARY :

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CONSULTATION:

The documents of the library are consulted in the reading room.
Access is allowed when authorized by the president of your institution or the curator of the library for a research for university, professional or personal reasons, which requires the use of the collections of the library.

The access to the reading room is free and requires a registration on justification of identity.

A card, valid for one year starting from the registration, will be delivered.
The curator can authorize an occasional access.

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PRACTICAL INFORMATIONS :

The library is open on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, from 10 am to 5pm.

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CONTACT :

phone : [phone]

mail : [e-mail]

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Activities and exhibitions

Current exhibitions :

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Tea at Guimet ( 03/10/2012 to 07/01/2013)

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The most popular, universal drink of the world, Tea was born in China under the dynasty of Tang. This by-product of the camellia prospered in the wild state in China of the Southwest and was cultivated in the form of shrubs. The infusion extracted from its leaves became common and gradually spread to all Western countries.
For two millenniums of its history, its consumption went through three phases: the age of the boiled tea under Tang (618-907), the age of the ground tea under Song (960-1279), the age of the brewed tea under Ming (1368-1644).

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I Went ( 03/10/2012 to 28/01/2013)

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The exhibition « I Went » is articulated around a meditative wandering to the rythm of a selection of about twenty works resulting from the collection of the National Center for the Visual Arts. With the same from fascination for Asia, the sacred, the absolute, journeys, religions and aesthetics, the 50′s to the present day with the presentation of works by Werner Bischof, Christian Boltanski, Marie-Ange Guilleminot, Xavier Veilhan, etc. …  This second edition of the cycle « Movement » will be part of Sleepless night 2012.

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OUT OF THE MUSEUM :

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A reference museum in Europe on ivories, the Château-Musée of Dieppe, presents a rich collection of more than 2.000 items essentially about the art of sculpture and the small business sector of Dieppe. The study of the collections of ivories has aroused a renewed interest for decades in Europe. Since 2009, a group of curators has developed projects of studies, publications, even exhibitions involving museums specialized in the same material. Wishing to join this movement, the museum began a valuation of its collections through a program of publications accompanied with exhibitions dedicated to the ivory.

For the second opus of this program, the ivory of Asia was chosen. Indeed this noble material has been sculptured for more than 3.000 years on this vast continent and its very rich cultures.
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For the occasion, the national museum of Asian arts, the Guimet museum, in Paris, lends approximately 70 ivory objects, to which will be added 26 ivories of the « collection dieppoise », accompanied by numerous objects from Asia from its ethnographical collection (except ivories).
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Most of the big departments of the Museum Guimet are represented: China, Japan, China, the Tibet, Afghanistan (Begram), India, South-East Asia (Burma, Indonesia).

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Ancient exhibitions :

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The Collection (4)

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Japan : The collections of the Japanese section, with approximately 11.000 works, offer an extremely rich and diversified panorama of Japanese art since its birth, during the 3rd-2nd millenniums BCE, until the advent of the Meiji era in 1868.

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For example you can see (click on the pictures) :

 

The Collection (3)

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India : The Indian section of the museum Guimet is made up on the one hand, of sculptures from the 3rd millennium BCE to the 18-19th centuries, and on the other hand, the mobile or miniature paintings, from the 15th to the 19th century.

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For example you can see  (click on the pictures) :

The Collection (2)

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China : The Chinese section of the museum Guimet houses approximately 20 000 objects covering seven millenniums of Chinese art, from its origins to the 18th century. The archaeological domain begins with the Neolithic period with jades and ceramics, and continues with bronzes of the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The most important in the collections are harnesses, mirrors and bronze hooks as well as numismatics and lacquers.

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For example you can see  (click on the pictures) :

The Collection (1)

The Ground floor

What can you see in the museum? The collection deals with eight countries of Asia, and three other parts are collections about textiles, a collection of photos and archives that you can’t see if you are not a research worker.

The museum is divided into 3 parts which common visitors can discover :

- The ground floor (about South-East Asia and India)

- The first floor (about China, Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Himalaya, and textiles)

- The second floor (about Korea and Japan where you have also the library)

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Here’s the map to understand its organization :

The Ground floor

The First floor

The Second floor

The Third floor

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Three exemples will be tackled :

- China

- India

- Japan

 

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The Museum

The museum was an ethnographic museum about Egypt, Greece, India, China and Japan, but, after 1889, it became a Parisian museum about Asia. Nevertheless, with the new collection of the Louvre, Emile Guimet decided to restrict the exhibition. In 1912, Jacques Bacot gave items which had been collected from Tibet. The museum became a place essentially dedicated to this country. This collection was completed with objets from Korea thanks to Charles Varat‘s work.

Photograph by Jacques Bacot

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In 1927, the Guimet Museum was attached to the D.M.F ( Direction des musées de France ) and received other collections from other museums like the collection of the Museum of Trocadéro, which was a donation from  Louis Delaporte, a traveler who had been to Cambodia and Siam (Thailand). During the 20′s and the 30′s, the Archeological delegation of France in Afghanistan entrusted new works of art. Joseph Hackin, the curator at that time, gave his support to this acquisition.

Due to this evolution, the Guimet Museum became famous for having the largest collection about Asia in France. Nonetheless, actually, the collection is limited : you can see archeological objects from Asia, but you can’t discover the contemporary ones or ethnological objets. It’s important to add that we can see textiles thanks to the Krishna Riboud legacy.

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Drawing by Louis Delaporte (Angkor)

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In 1991, the museum, with Bernard Frank, opened the Buddhist Pantheon, where you have now a selection of the original collections brought back from Japan by Emile Guimet.

A big project of renovation was decided in 1993. The architects, Henri and Bruno Gaudin gave priority to natural light and  the creation of open perspectives within the 5500 m2 of permanent gallery space. This new place is pleasant, open with a serene atmosphere. With this major program of works, the Guimet Museum has now completed the total reorganization of its interior spaces since it was founded over a century ago.

The library and the roof have been  registered as Monuments historiques since Juillet 1979.

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Who was Guimet?

First,

It’s important to discover who was Guimet, the man who erected the Guimet Museum to know the situation which led to the creation of this museum.

     In fact, he was a French industrialist, but also a dynamic traveler and a very learned personality of the 19th century. We see evidence of that inasmuch as he wrote Lettres sur l’Algerie (1877) and Promenades japonaises (1880), and some musical compositions, like an opera entitled Tai-Tsoung in 1894.

He was born in Lyon on June, 2, 1836. He succeeded his father to lead his « artificial ultramarine » factory. Then, he also created the Guimet Museum, in Lyon, in 1879, but the establishment was transferred to Paris, in 1885. Moreover, he was commissioned by the minister of public instruction to study the religions of the Far East, in 1876, , that’s why the Guimet Museum had many objects as a result of this expedition, including a fine collection of Japanese and Chinese porcelain and many collector’s items about Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome which are not visible for the moment.

Quotation :

« Tâchez d’être mon compagnon, nous passerons ainsi dix mois qui éclaireront tout le reste de notre vie » ( Emile Guimet to Felix Regamey, an artist, in 1876, in Philadelphia with the intention of persuading him to carry out a word tour ).

The situation :

In 1876, Emile had been to Philadelphia for the Universal Exhibition, and went across the United-States on his way to Japan, via the Pacific Ocean.  He had orders from the minister of public instruction to investigate oriental religions. Indeed, religion studies was a new field of investigation. In Japan, where Buddhism was separated from Shintoism, the situation was difficult but the Occidental school was a new model, that is the reason why, for Emile Guimet, It was easy to work about this country. It was the perfect time for him to suggest this trip to Felix Regamey.

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Please refer to the following site for more information :

http://www.guimet.fr/fr/musee-guimet/emile-guimet-fondateur-du-musee

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You can also see this video (but not in English) :

You’re welcome

Good morning everybody,

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         I decided to create a blog about an important museum for me, the Guimet museum, which is a French museum dealing with Asian Art. In fact, this museum has one of the largest collections of Asian Art outside Asia. When I discovered this museum I was impressed by the size of the rooms and I think it could be interesting to show you its how grand it is.

You can visit this place at  » 6, place d’Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris  » in France, if you want and if, like me, you appreciate the Asian culture.

You can also visit the museum’s website : http://www.guimet.fr/fr/

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Enjoy your visit to my website !