The best of the François Morellet centenary: exhibitions to see
François Morellet would have turned one hundred. From the Cité de l'architecture to the Louvre, from Cholet, his birthplace, to Marseille, neon lights, grids, and glass roofs are taking over museums and castles. Here are the confirmed events for the season.
François Morellet, Traits d'esprit, at the Cité de l'architecture
He called them his "disintegrations": a perfectly straight façade, a grand staircase, which he would make wobble with the slightest touch. For the centenary, the Cité de l'architecture is displaying one hundred and forty monumental interventions in its gallery of plaster casts, opposite the Romanesque portals and life-size Gothic tympana. The playful geometer is finally getting the duel he deserved.
CITY OF ARCHITECTURE AND HERITAGE
From October 16, 2026 to January 3, 2027
Paris 16th - Metro: Trocadéro (lines 6/9)
Price: €13 - Reduced rate: €10 - Free for under 18s
The Spirit of the Staircase: Morellet's Stained Glass Windows at the Louvre
The grand Lefuel staircase, in the Richelieu wing, displays its wrought-iron railings and round oculi. Seven black and white stained-glass windows repeat the exact same motif, slightly offset: Morellet designed them in 2010. We go up, we go down, we go up again to understand the source of the unease, when most visitors pass by without looking up. The Louvre is dedicating a conference to the centenary.
LOUVRE MUSEUM
Permanent artwork, Lefuel staircase, Richelieu wing
"The Morellet Centenary at the Louvre" Conference, December 2, 2026
Paris 1st arrondissement - Metro: Palais-Royal Musée du Louvre (1/7)
Included with museum admission, free for under 18s
Under the geometry, the playfulness, at the Grenoble Museum
Lunatic Neonly: the title is a pun with hidden meanings, as Morellet liked them, and the artwork is a neon sign. The Grenoble Museum is showing a wide selection of Morellet's works from its collection: paintings, graphic works, and the 1972 work *Sphere-Trame* (81), in which the grid leaves the wall to become volume. Half a century of geometry applied with an engineer's seriousness, then playfully disrupted with Dadaist delight.
GRENOBLE MUSEUM (85)
From October 3, 2026 to January 17, 2027
Grenoble (38)
Free admission
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Morellet, 100% neon, in Cholet
Cholet is his home. Born in the city in 1926, Morellet lived and worked there his entire life, running the family toy factory until 1975, which paid for his workshop. The Museum of Art and History is dedicating five months of neon lighting to him in a hall where the GRAV's Labyrinth has been recreated—a system of corridors and mirrors where the public became the artwork. His return to his hometown has a festive air about it.
CHOLET MUSEUM OF ART AND HISTORY
From September 19, 2026 to February 28, 2027
Cholet (49)
Price: €5, free on Saturdays
More Morellet, at the Château de Montsoreau
Two hundred and four thousand eight hundred squares, half blue, half red, arranged according to the decimal places of Pi: the artwork that greets visitors in the hall of the Château de Montsoreau sums up the entire method. A strict protocol, an irrational number, and chance to decide. The contemporary art museum housed in the Loire fortress continues the conversation with today's artists.
CHÂTEAU DE MONTSOREAU, MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Until January 4, 2027
Montsoreau (49)
Price: €12 - Reduced price: €8
Chosen Friendship, at the Espace de l'Art Concret in Mouans-Sartoux
The title speaks of kinship as much as affection. The Espace de l'Art Concret presents Morellet's work alongside the Albers-Honegger collection, a collection of rigorous abstractions and uncompromising geometries, and complements the exhibition with adhesive installations created specifically for the space. This offers an opportunity to appreciate what the playful artist owes to the austere, and what he has given back to them.
SPACE OF CONCRETE ART
Until November 22, 2026
Mouans-Sartoux (06)
Price: €9 - Reduced rate: €7 - Free for under 18s
The Spirit of Sequence (Part Two), at the Caen Museum of Fine Arts
We know neon, but less so paper. The Caen Museum of Fine Arts brings together the major series of prints and editions by Morellet, from the 1960s to the 2000s, and reveals an engraver and publisher obsessed with series and variation. The spirit of continuity, part two: the museum already attempted this exercise in 2015, and it's doing it again.
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS OF CAEN
From October 10, 2026 to February 7, 2027
Caen (14), Caen Castle
Price: €5 - Reduced rate: €4 - Free for under 26s
Beware of the system, in Chinon
In front of Chinon station, a second station floats in blue neon, offset by nine degrees. Égarement, a public commission from 2005 restored last year, redesigns the façade and rotates it just enough to make the traveler question their own vision. The town hall gallery extends this gesture with several neon signs constructed according to precise rules. Morellet liked to recall his attachment to the city, where his father was sub-prefect.
CHINON TOWN HALL GALLERY
From October 3 to November 29, 2026
Chinon (37)
Free admission
6 + (1+1+1) / Morellet restored, in Marseille's [mac]
The title is an equation, and it solves itself. Six are the Morellet works from Marseille's collections, brought together for the first time. The other three come from Studio Morellet, the Frac Sud, and the Fonds M-Arco. The [mac] integrates the exhibition into its permanent collection and, in doing so, demonstrates the artist's long-standing connection to this region.
[MAC] MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
From November 26, 2026 to January 30, 2028
Marseille (13)
Free admission
