If the last Venice Biennale enthroned César as the patriarch of French sculpture, this full-scale retrospective curated by Jeu de Paume director Daniel Abadie inaugurates the era of his consecration. Those frightened by the early ’60s César, scion of the nouveaux réalistes who merrily threw old car bodies into compactors to make scrap-metal cubes, or disgusted by the late ’60s César, maker of soft and erotic inflated plastic forms, will be comforted by the artist’s “Bestiary,” sculptures from the ’50s of hairy beasts much closer to the work of Picasso, Julio González, or Germaine Richier. June 10-Oct. 19

— Pascaline Cuvelier