Despite controversy, designs for Notre Dame’s new windows go on display in Paris
By Caroline Roux
(CNN) — The designs for six new stained-glass windows for the cathedral of Notre Dame have gone on show at the Grand Palais in Paris, despite a number of protests against the project.
The works by the French artist Claire Tabouret replace the monochrome windows commissioned by the architects Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus in the 19th century. The original windows suffered no damage in the fire that destroyed the cathedral’s spire five years ago, leading experts, architects and art historians to claim that replacing them would breach cultural guidelines.
However, in a gallery reached via three stories of circular stairs in the Grand Palais’ quiet south-western end, the building’s walls are lined with dazzling, full-scale, ink-on-paper maquettes of the cathedral’s new windows.
“Every time there is a new artistic intervention in a historic part of Paris, there is a controversy, and it’s interesting to be part of that history,” Tabouret told The Art Newspaper. “The Buren columns in the Palais-Royal, I. M. Pei’s Pyramid at the Louvre — they go on to become beloved parts of the city. Change should be made with caution, and this project is very cautious, very gentle, harmonious.”
The designs by Tabouret, a 44-year-old painter who now lives in Los Angeles, were chosen from submissions by more than 100 artists. They follow the given brief: the story of the Pentecost when the Holy Spirit appeared at a large gathering and filled each soul. “I’m not religious,” she said, “but it is a story about community and celebration.”
Tabouret is known as a figurative painter, but here she shifts between human groupings and vivid landscapes — a roiling sea, trees swept by a gale — to create an animated sequence of imagery. “The colors of the glass will be taken directly from my painting,” she said of the vibrant reds, greens and blues which defer equally to the palette of historical religious art.
The artist worked with the stained-glass masters Atelier Simon-Marq, who in the past created windows with Joan Miro and Raoul Dufy. She has not, however, forgotten the windows by Viollet-le-Duc, which formed a key part of the building’s history.
“I quote from Viollet-le-Duc in the ornamentation in the background of every scene,” Tabouret said. “These geometrical designs make a direct reference to the previous windows.”
“Claire Tabouret: In a Single Breath” is on show at Grand Palais, Paris, until 15 March.
Read more stories from The Art Newspaper here.
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