Conceived by President Georges Pompidou, this unique museum was intended as a cultural meeting place dedicated to the modern and contemporay arts. The Centre was constructed during the 1970s, famously featuring a bold exoskeletal structure made of brightly coloured pipes, tubes and crisscrossing ducts. Dreamt up by Italian/British architect team Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, this groundbreaking design, made to 'capture the spirit of the 20th century', was utterly contoversial in its time. The Centre's blatant 'insideoutness' and obvious lack of harmony with surrounding architectural environment prompted descriptions as varied as 'Oil Refinery' and 'Avant-garde Wart'. Today the centre's outward appearance may still make heads turn and jowls quiver, but it is widely held as a precursor of modern innovative museums, where stuffiness is sidelined and cultural exchange and interaction encouraged.
The principal draw to the Centre is the National Museum of Modern Art (Musee d'Art Moderne), which contains a vast collection of more than 50 000 works of art dating from 1905 onwards. Items on display relate to a whole range of artforms including photography, design, cinema, architecture, painting and sculpture. Important works from 20th century artists including Dali, Duchamp, Pollock and Picasso are displayed on the 4th floor.
