Curated by Françoise Cohen

Until recently, the French art establishment was generally known for its antipathy toward la peinture contemporaine, as well for its institutional sneering at trends generated abroad. Yet with Saatchi’s blockbuster show “The Triumph of Painting” generating critical buzz across the Channel, Nîmes’s Carré d’Art has decided to break with past precedents and embrace the vitality of the “new” German painting scene. Leaving Franco-Germanic rivalries aside, this tightly focused survey features nearly one hundred works by eighteen artists—from ’80s father figures Martin Kippenberger and Albert Oehlen to market darlings Franz Ackermann, Eberhard Havekost, and Daniel Richter to an array of recent talents like Anselm Reyle and Tim Eitel.

— Alison M. Gingeras