Contemporary French artist Tania Mouraud made a dramatic entrance into the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts, wielding a corsair saber with characteristic flair. The 83-year-old artist, renowned for burning her canvases in 1968 before exploring urban art, sound, and video, has joined the Painting section of this illustrious institution. This represents a crowning achievement for the conceptual art pioneer, who has never stopped challenging our perception of the world.
Under the dome of the Institut de France palace on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, Mouraud officially took her place in Chair VIII of the Painting section, succeeding Guy de Rougemont. Known for her multifaceted and politically engaged work, the artist joins an institution that now counts 17 women among its members—a symbolic milestone she emphasized in her tribute speech to her predecessor. Along with Nina Childress, who was also elected in March 2024, they became the first two women to join the Academy's Painting section, marking a truly historic moment.
The ceremony followed traditional protocol, presided over by Coline Serreau, accompanied by perpetual secretary Laurent Petitgirard and writer and art historian Adrien Goetz (replacing vice-president Jean Gaumy). Welcomed by the Republican Guard, the academicians took their places under the dome before the speeches began.
Blanca Li, a member of the Choreography section and sponsor of this installation, praised Mouraud's "work constructed as a refusal of immobilism, forgetfulness, and silence." She highlighted how Mouraud has made language and painting her true weapons of combat—fitting for the daughter of parents who were engaged in the French Resistance. This was a vibrant tribute to a major figure of the contemporary scene, whose career spanning over six decades combines experimentation with engagement.
As a self-taught artist, Mouraud has marked art history through the radical nature of her gestures. In 1968, she burned all her canvases in her "Autodafé" (Auto-da-fé), a foundational act through which she definitively freed herself from traditional frameworks before investing in public space, photography, video, and sound. She became known in the 1970s with her urban interventions, critical performances confronting consumer society.
In the 1990s, she invented her iconic "Wall Paintings"—vast mural compositions where words metamorphose into abstract labyrinths. More recently, with "Ad Infinitum," an immersive installation presented in La Rochelle until November 16, she invites visitors to poetic meditation around whales filmed in black and white in the Mexican lagoon of Ojo de Liebre.
The ceremony's most moving moment came when her friend Hélène Guenin, director of the Yves Klein Foundation and curator of Mouraud's retrospective at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in 2015, presented her with her academician's sword. This unique piece was designed by the artist herself and crafted by Arthus Bertrand, taking the form of a saber "in homage to female corsairs." The sword is engraved with phrases in Yiddish and English, as well as the names of her six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Radiant, Mouraud brandished the saber before her family and under thunderous applause from the audience. The rebel artist has now achieved immortality within France's most prestigious artistic institution, cementing her legacy as both an innovator and a voice of resistance in contemporary art.
