An exhibition that proved a surprise hit on the Riviera is preparing for its next act on the global stage. Colors! Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou will open at Beijing Minsheng Art Museum on January 24, following a highly successful summer run in Monaco.
The show drew 76,500 visitors in just 55 days at the Grimaldi Forum, placing it among the venue’s three most popular exhibitions to date — rubbing shoulders with crowd-pullers devoted to Claude Monet and Grace Kelly. Not bad company.
For its Beijing presentation, running until April, 15 2026, the exhibition has been reimagined for a Chinese audience. The Grimaldi Forum Monaco is overseeing both production and scenography, with a redesigned layout tailored to the new venue. The Beijing edition will also place Western modernist icons in conversation with contemporary Chinese works, reinforcing Monaco’s growing cultural footprint abroad.
Originally conceived by Centre Pompidou deputy director Didier Ottinger, with scenography by William Chatelain, the exhibition features more than 100 major works from the 20th century. Rather than following art-historical timelines, the pieces are organised by colour in a circular display — a visual logic that proved instantly legible, even to visitors who don’t usually haunt galleries.
That accessibility paid off. Nearly 40 per cent of Monaco’s audience was under 25, a statistic Grimaldi Forum director Sylvie Biancheri described as “a very encouraging sign” for future engagement with major exhibitions.
The experience went beyond wall-mounted masterpieces. Designer installations, soundscapes and carefully calibrated scents turned the show into a fully immersive encounter — art you didn’t just look at, but walked through.
Beijing now gets its turn. And if the Monaco numbers are anything to go by, Chinese audiences should be ready for colour, spectacle and the odd sensory surprise.
