KIKI COMES TO CHÂTILLON-SUR-SEINE FOR A ROARING YEAR!

An icon of the Roaring Twenties, muse of the avant-garde, and a free-spirited artist, Kiki of Montparnasse embodies the spirit of Montparnasse in the 1920s and the cultural upheavals of an era in search of modernity. Born in Châtillon-sur-Seine in 1901 as Alice Prin, she became one of Paris’s most celebrated figures of the artistic bohemia while asserting her place as a fully-fledged artist.

Muse to Man Ray, Mendjisky, Kisling, Foujita, and Soutine, and immortalized in the iconic photograph Le Violon d’Ingres (1924), Kiki projected a new image of women: free, bold, and unbound by social conventions. Singer, painter, writer, and performer, she crafted her own legend and played an active role in the artistic creation of her time.

Presented at the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais – Trésor de Vix, this nationally significant exhibition offers an immersive and accessible journey, bringing together photographs, paintings, drawings, archives, and works by Kiki herself. It highlights how Kiki was a central figure in the art of her time, inspiring artists with her freedom, energy, and singular presence.

Part of the Châtillon-sur-Seine – Cradle of Icons project, the exhibition reconnects Kiki of Montparnasse’s legacy with her hometown and invites the public to rediscover a key figure in female emancipation and 20th-century cultural history.

Exceptional loans from around the world include:

• Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) – New York

• Villa La Fleur Museum – Poland

• Musée des Années Trente – Boulogne-Billancourt

• Musée Goya – Castres

• Écomusée de la Bresse

• Cinémathèque Française

And works by outstanding artists: Man Ray, Pablo Gargallo, Tsuguharu Foujita, Moïse Kisling, Maurice Mendjisky, Zaliouk, and Kiki herself.

A vibrant, free, and daring exhibition—just like Kiki of Montparnasse.

Don’t miss it: April 1 to December 30, 2026.