The exhibition “Hair and hair” at the Museum of Decorative Arts, the opportunity to “tame the animal that is in you”

The hair in all these states is the theme of the new exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Hair as a synonym of virility, femininity or negligence, depending on the period in the Western world. And from the first room of the exhibition, the tone is set: the Wild Man welcomes us, a small oak statuette from the end of the Middle Ages. “We only see that, only his hair”describes Eléonore. “It’s a bit monstrous, it really contrasts with the Mary Magdalene on the other side, with her beautiful, very controlled hair.”

Does the mastery of the hair and the hair differentiate us from the beast? “If I could, I would have kept the subtitle: hair and body hair, taming the animal in you!”explains Denis Bruna, the curator of the exhibition, who jokes about his physical appearance: “It’s true that I don’t have a lot of hair, I’m more hairy!”

“I think this subject came to me from going to the barber regularly for many years, and watching how the customers around me were, what their thoughts were, and I thought there was a ground. “

Denis Bruna, curator of the exhibition

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From room to room, we listen to Ginette Garcin sing to us about the love of hair, we pass in front of paintings from medieval times representing veiled women, then gradually wearing their hair until the beginning of the modern era. Here, a mummy toupee, there, an Andy Warhol wig, decades of objects of all kinds, like these mustache guards on ceramic mugs dating from the end of the 19th century.

And behind a wall, a surprise for visitors: The origin of the world by Gustave Courbet, on loan from the Musée d’Orsay and which has its place here. “We must also talk about female hair which has often been hidden”approves Catherine, who confides that this painting is her husband’s favorite.

The exhibition continues through a reconstructed hairdressing salon, then in front of haute couture pieces made from hair. It ends with a wink: the photo of a woman brandishing a lock of hair in Iran, a symbol of protest and of hair that goes beyond mere fashion.

Hair and body hair, an exhibition to visit at the Musée des Arts Déco in Paris until September 17, 2023.