Claire Tabouret To Provide Notre Dame’s Contemporary Design
French artist Claire Tabouret has been chosen to create new contemporary stained glass windows for the recently refurbished Notre Dame Cathedral. A 20-member committee selected her from eight finalists and shortlisted 110 artists. The committee included artists, conservators, and representatives, such as President Emmanuel Macron and Laurent Ulrich, the Archbishop of Paris from the French Ministry of Culture and the Paris diocese respectively.
The finalists included French artist Daniel Buren and China-born portrait specialist, Yan Pei-Min, now based in France, Jean-Michel Alberola, Christine Safa, Gérard Traquandi, Flavie Vincent-Petit, and Pascal Convert.
Stained Glass Windows Design
Clair Tobouret’s designs will undergo an in-depth six-month review process before they are created. The design might take about a year and a half to make. The installation is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2026. The allocated budget is a whopping €4 million ($4.2 million).
Tabouret has confirmed that the window is a “figurative work of art.” Tabouret will partner with the Reims-based glass studio Atelier Simon-Marq. Together, they will design the stained glass windows for six chapels, featuring praying masses contemplating, using pink, red, turquoise, and yellow.
The Reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral
The Notre Dame Cathedral reopened its doors on December 7th, following the partial destruction of the 861-year-old structure and the 19th-century spire due to a fire on April 15, 2019. During its reconstruction, French designer Guillaume Bardet designed the minimal liturgical furnishings. He is currently featured in a solo show at Paris’s Galerie kreo.
The reopening ceremony was littered with politicians and notable figures such as Donald Trump, Jill Biden, Volodymyr Zelensky, Elon Musk, and Prince William.
Claire Tabouret on Her Work
Claire Tabouret describes, “My work had been dedicated to figurative painting and personal subjects. I had reached a point in my life where I wanted to be of service to something bigger than myself. At first, I questioned if I was worthy. There’s a great deal of audacity in this commission, which will take place in a beloved and historic building. But you have to trust contemporary artists.”
She adds, “In times like ours, marked by war, extreme division, and tension, this opportunity to use my art to promote unity through the theme of the Pentecost is a wonderful gesture of hope. This will be a figurative work of art, so that it can be understood, without explanation or label, by people from different cultures. The colours used will echo those of the architect. With the help of Atelier Simon-Marq, the goal will be to balance them so as not to distort the white light.
The Pushback at the Stained Glass Windows
Claire Tabouret’s design has garnered opposition from those against replacing Notre Dame’s original 19th-century windows by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Jean-Baptiste Lassus. According to a report by The Art Newspaper, the National Commission of Heritage and Architecture plans to initiate a lawsuit to prevent the alteration of the windows.
The institution plans to invoke the 1964 Venice Charter on the restoration of historic structures. Thus far, the petition has collected 243,000 signatures. Claire Tabouret responded, “I’ve taken into account the various viewpoints of people because I aim to grasp their reasoning. We must continue to evolve, remain assured in our time, and demonstrate faith in contemporary artists.”
About Claire Tabouret
Claire Tabouret was born in Pertuis, France, in 1981 and studied at Cooper Union in New York and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, completing her education in 2006. In 2015, she moved to Los Angeles, where she currently resides and works.
She has achieved international acclaim for her poignant portraits of children, who bear a scar-like red mark on their faces. She is co-represented by Almine Rech and Perrotin. She was also showcased in The Holy See pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale.
About Atelier Simon- Marq
Atelier Simon-Marq, founded in 1640, has collaborated with Marc Chagall and Joan Miró. The glass studio cum workshop also revived the stained-glass windows of Notre Dame de Reims after the cathedral was bombarded during World War II; in the 1950s. More recently, it partnered with Imi Knoebel to create windows for the Reims Cathedral and collaborated with Jean-Paul Agosti to design windows for the fire-damaged Sacred Heart Church in Geneva.
Image Courtesy – Dailymotion via Mediapart
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