and is not always what the Commissioner wanted to demonstrate

"The endless Enigma" is the name of an array of El Salvador Dali dated 1938. And it could also be the title of very sophisticated exposure of the Grand Palais, in which this work is shown. The operation is signed Jean-Hubert Martin, a specialist in contemporary art that have marked the recent history by organizing an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1989 "the magicians of the Earth" which opened in the current creation of other continents: Asia, Africa... Twenty years later, therefore, Jean - Hubert Martin after his talents in many parts of the world, returns to the Grand Palais with a cabinet of curiosities giant, filled with 250 works which embrace all countries and almost all periods. A colossal ambition for a complex show, entitled "an image can in hiding another".

In fact it's a riddle across the rooms of the Grand Palace, where the Viewer is looking... and is not always what the Commissioner wanted to demonstrate. There is intellectual enjoyment and almost Titanic work, but the connection is not always clear. Are chosen exclusively from works which can have multiple reading. "casting" is no doubt impressive: Mantegna at Brauner, of Arcimboldo to Picasso, from Mughal miniatures to El Salvador Dali... Catalan is one of the leading specialists of this Visual ambiguity. It gives instructions to collect his "special effects" on the Web: Watch "for some time with a slight decline and a certain fixity distracted."

King of the illusion

This is what you can do that with "The endless Enigma": a greenish landscape bathed light end of the world, where the landforms turn suddenly face or body. A series of comic studies preparatory to painting to elucidate a little, this mystery. For those who do not understand everything, should know that before the Web had been named "The great settler Cyclops".

The exhibition is divided into themes. The first is entitled "origin myth" and deals with the idea of perception linked to the imagination. For example, in 1972, Jasper Johns uses the illustration of a psychology book to represent a species of mud that negative shows two faces in profile. In the category "Imitation and imagination" there is a "Minerve hunting the defects in the garden of virtue" of Mantegna. A scene of great wealth whose presence is justified by clouds in head shape. Arcimboldo, the King of the illusion, known for its composite faces, is especially well represented by his "four seasons" of the Louvre. Four profiles made of flowers, vegetables, roots and fruit, according to experts a praise of the Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg... whose reign continues with the seasons.

An entire chapter of the exhibition is dedicated to the Mughal miniatures. Astounding: the "composite" lion is a multitude of cats or horses which contains figures of Knights in his breast. Message: the creature is made of disparate elements, demons, internal and external forces. And when the Shah Bahrâm-Gour will listen to the harpist fairy, mystical initiator of the monarch, is in turn Azadeh the effrontée, the disturbing Fetneh and Der-Alam, within the debate. It subjugates even the camel carrying the, consisting of a pile of wild beasts and musicians.

The richness of the program appears to be infinite: the face of Paul Gauguin appears negative in a landscape painted in 1888 and he called "above the abyss". Although help catalog to understand that in the "steep rating" Edgar Degas a seemingly boring pastels in a meadow in edge of sea is hidden the body while curves of a naked woman. Despite the evidence, could not however detected the double face in "The woman in profile with the hat" painting by douard Vuillard. The essence of the work of art is to give everyone the opportunity to read the message differently. At the Grand Palace, it is a duty: look beyond the appearance. A rich Riddle in 250 steps. A mystery almost without end.