Decadent Spirit: French Art at the Turn of the Century
Exhibition
Courtesy of Grand Rapids Art Museum - Armand Guillaumin, View at Rouen, ca. 1904. Oil on canvas. Gift of the Estate of Martin A. and Carrie Ryerson, 1939.1.4
Grand Rapids Art Museum
101 Monroe Center St NW
Grant Rapids, MI, 49503
May 29 - Sept 6, 2026
A city on the brink of modernity. A generation determined to reinvent art.
Between 1880 and 1910, Paris became a laboratory of artistic innovation as industrialization, new technologies, and profound social change transformed everyday life. In the vibrant atmosphere of the fin de siècle, artists, designers, and visionaries embraced experimentation, creating bold new aesthetic languages that redefined modern culture.
Decadent Spirit: French Art at the Turn of the Century brings together more than 130 works—including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, decorative arts, design, and early film—to explore this extraordinary period of creativity. Through the intertwined stories of artists, designers, and their muses, the exhibition reveals how beauty, modernity, and reinvention shaped one of the most influential moments in French art.
Organized by the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the exhibition is curated by Terra Warren, Associate Curator.