The concept of the museum-cum-gallery, and the relationship between artworks and their viewing public, are central to the vocabulary of modern art. Showcases, collections, reserve collections, and the gallery space itself have all been investigated, challenged, and provoked by contemporary artists and their works or installations. "These are themes which have been thoroughly explored by the Surrealists and others," notes Marie-Laure Bernadac. "Artists like Marcel Duchamp, Daniel Buren, Christian Boltanski, André Breton, and Joseph Beuys . . . " Today's museum environment has also become an essential subject for photographers like Thomas Struth, Louise Lawler, and Candida Höfer. When the contemporary meets the art of the past, shared ideas and artistic concerns emerge, leading the viewer to exciting new discoveries rooted in both similarities and differences. Showing at the Louvre is an undreamed-of opportunity for today's artists. The Louvre aims to promote a discreet, stimulating, potentially subversive contemporary presence: a breath of living creativity in a traditional museum setting. The "Counterpoint" exhibition—ten artists in dialogue with the full range of the collection—embodied the strategy to perfection.
