96 J.-A. PEMBERTON
français (Masterpieces of French Art). An initiative of Blum, the ret-
rospective was prepared with a view to the official inauguration of the
Palais de Tokyo on May 24, 1937.^34 The Palais de Tokyo, the style of
which as with the neighbouring Palais de Chaillot comprised modernist,
neoclassical and monumental elements, was designed with the purpose of
accommodating two museums of modern art: an east wing, which was
destined to house the collection of the municipality of Paris, and a west
wing, which was destined to house the collection of the French state.^35
Appropriately, on the esplanade in front of the building, ‘a large gilded
bronze sculpture,’ the work of Antoine Bourdelle, ‘representing the
Spirit of France was erected.’^36
The intention of the authorities was that the Palais des musées d’art
moderne would receive the aforementioned collections following the
conclusion of the exposition. For the exposition’s duration, however, the
rooms of the east wing of the palais were reserved for the use of the exhi-
bition’s general commission and for displays of information concerning
the fields of urbanism, museography and international intellectual coop-
eration. During the same period, the west wing of the palais was used to
house a retrospective entitled Masterpieces of French Art.^37 Pascal Ory
(^34) Société pour le Développement du Tourisme, Exposition internationale arts et techniques,
Paris 1937: Guide officiel (Paris: Ḗditions de la Société pour le Développement du Tourisme,
1937), 92; Jerry Cullum, review of Paris 1937: Worlds on Exhibition, by James D. Herbert,
Art in America, no. 88 (1999): 39; Gérard Durozol, ‘Painting and Sculpture,’ in Vincent
Bouvet and Gérard Durozol, eds., Paris Between the Wars: Art, Style and Glamour in the
Crazy Years, trans. Ruth Sharman (London: Thames & Hudson, 2010), 283–84; Philippe
Dagen, ‘La malédition du Palais de Tokyo,’ Le Monde 2, April 11, 2009: 46–9, 48; and Pacal
Ory, ‘Le Front populaire et l’Exposition,’ in Lemoine, ed., Paris 1937: Cinquantenaire de
l’Exposition internationale des arts et des techniques dans la vie moderne, 31.
(^35) Dagen, ‘La malédition du Palais de Tokyo,’ 46, 48; Société pour le Développement
du Tourisme, Exposition internationale arts et techniques, Paris 1937, 90; Cullum, review of
Paris 1937: Worlds on Exhibition by James D. Herbert, 39.
(^36) Durozol, ‘Painting and Sculpture,’ 284.
(^37) Société pour le Développement du Tourisme, Exposition internationale arts et techniques,
Paris 1937, 90–2. Jean Cassou was the person appointed to direct the Musée national d’ art
moderne. His appointment was ‘revoked by Vichy from September 1940 because this former
defender of Republican Spain...[was]...reputed to be close to the Communists.’ Dagen, ‘La
malédition du Palais de Tokyo,’ 48. The museum finally opened on August 6, 1942, under
the direction of Pierre Ladoué and Bernard Dorival. Only a part of the museum’s collec-
tion was displayed. Although covering more than fifty years of national art, the presentation