GUEST OF HONOR | Institut du monde arabe | 2026

INSTITUT DU MONDE ARABE | 2026

GUEST OF HONOR
Moderne Art Fair highlights the Institut du monde arabe

EXHIBITION
Icons from the Claude and France Lemand Donation

For its 2026 edition, Moderne Art Fair is delighted to announce an exceptional collaboration with the Arab World Institute, which will take centre stage at the fair through an exhibition featuring a selection of major works from its museum’s collections, drawn from the Claude and France Lemand Donation. This collection bears witness to the richness and diversity of modern and contemporary art from the Arab world and its dialogue with the major international artistic movements of the 20th century.

Presented at the entrance to the exhibition route, this exhibition will offer visitors a unique dialogue between the perspective of a major cultural institution and the works presented by the French and international galleries gathered at the Place de la Concorde. More than just a guest exhibition, this collaboration has been conceived as a genuine extension of the fair’s exhibition route, enriching the discoveries offered by the exhibitors and opening up new perspectives on modern and contemporary art.

Through this unique exhibition, visitors will be able to discover leading artists who have helped to renew the languages of modernity within the Arab world and beyond. Iconic figures such as Etel Adnan, Shafic Abboud, Dia Al-Azzawi, Abdallah Benanteur, Chaouki Choukini, Baya and Manabu Kochi bear witness to the richness of the artistic exchanges that shaped the 20th century.

Spanning abstraction, figuration and artistic experimentation, their works reveal unique creative journeys shaped by constant dialogue between East and West, tradition and modernity.

The exhibition will thus highlight artists who contributed to the emergence of an artistic modernity specific to the Arab world, whilst maintaining a fruitful dialogue with the major international movements of the 20th century. It will serve as a reminder of how much cultural exchange has shaped the history of modern art and continues today to shed light on the challenges facing contemporary creation.

By partnering with the Arab World Institute for this edition, Moderne Art Fair reaffirms its commitment to strengthening ties between galleries, institutions, collectors and the general public. This initiative also illustrates the fair’s ambition to offer an ever-richer cultural experience, where the art market engages in dialogue with major public collections and key players in the museum world.

This collaboration with the Arab World Institute forms part of the 2026 edition, which is firmly focused on discovery, intercultural dialogue and providing a broader perspective on the major international art scenes. Further original exhibitions, institutional collaborations, collection tours and exclusive events will enrich the fair’s programme, reaffirming more than ever Moderne Art Fair’s role as an unmissable highlight of Paris’s international art week.

Banner : ©Institut du monde arabe – Licence CC BY 2.0

Abdallah BENANTEUR, The Mount of Olives, 1983. Oil on canvas, 120 x 120 cm. IMA Museum. Donated by Claude & France Lemand. © Estate of Abdallah Benanteur. Courtesy of Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

ARTISTES

Abdallah BENANTEUR
Chaouki CHOUKINI
Manabu KOCHI

ART WORKS

Dia AL-AZZAWI, Sunset over Basrah, 1990. Acrylic on canvas, 91 x 122 cm. IMA Museum. Donated by Claude & France Lemand. © Dia al-Azzawi. Courtesy of Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.