Must-see shows during Art Basel Paris 2025 – The Art Newspaper

A major highlight of the cultural calendar in the French capital, Art Basel Paris has swiftly established itself as an essential rendezvous in the City of Light. As The Grand Palais hosts the fourth edition, showcasing 206 leading French and international galleries, we round up the must-see shows to catch while you’re in town.

30 Blizzards

Palais d’Iéna, Paris, until 26 October 2025

Art Basel’s public programme returns for the second year running with a new project at the Conseil économique, social et environnemental (CESE), the landmark building designed by architect Auguste Perret. Presented by Miu Miu, it transforms the hypostyle hall with 30 Blizzards, a major new installation by British artist Helen Marten, recipient of both the Turner Prize and the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture in 2016.

Exposition générale

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, 25 October 2025 – 23 August 2026

To mark the opening of its new home, designed by Jean Nouvel on Place du Palais-Royal, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is bringing together nearly 600 works by more than a hundred artists. The exhibition retraces 40 years of programming that have shaped and enriched its collection. Entitled Exposition générale—a nod to the landmark shows once staged at the Grands Magasins du Louvre—it is conceived as both an invitation to discovery and a space for dialogue: the living narrative of an institution and a bridge between art and its audiences.

Gerhard Richter

Fondation Louis-Vuitton, Paris, until 2 March 2026

In line with its tradition of showcasing the great masters of the 20th and 21st centuries, the Fondation Louis Vuitton presents a sweeping panorama of Gerhard Richter’s work from 1962 to 2024. Spanning from painting—which he ceased in 2017—to photography and punctuated by sculpture, the exhibition retraces the career of an artist who, in a statement for Documenta 7 in 1982, declared that “art is the ultimate form of hope”.

Minimal

Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection, Paris, until 19 January 2026

Featuring over 100 works by some 40 artists, the Bourse de Commerce presents Minimal art as what François Pinault calls the “most intimate part” of his collection—the one that made him realise that “time could be suspended.” Curated by Jessica Morgan, director of the Dia Art Foundation, the exhibition invites visitors into the very core of the artistic experience, unfolding a narrative that began in the 1960s—from light to balance, from surface to grid.

Prix Marcel Duchamp 2025

Musée d’Art moderne de Paris, Paris, until 22 February 2026

With the Centre Pompidou closed for renovation, the Marcel Duchamp Prize takes up residence for the first time at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM). For this edition, the four shortlisted artists—Bianca Bondi, Xie Lei, Eva Nielsen, and Lionel Sabatté—unveil their projects in the museum’s collection galleries, freely accessible to all visitors. The prize winner will be revealed on 23 October at the MAM, during Paris Art Week.

Philip Guston
Musée national Picasso-Paris, Paris, until 1 March 2026

With this Philip Guston retrospective, spanning from the 1930s through to the end of his life, the Musée national Picasso-Paris sheds light on the porous dialogue between his art and satire, at times even the grotesque, as a mirror of his political commitment. From the Nixon Drawings – presented for the first time in France – to his caricatural figures, the exhibition underscores the sharp edge of his dark humour, which resonates with undiminished relevance today.