The Salon d’Automne, which authored in 2009 a manifesto condemning the terrifying diktat of a single “aesthetic”, quickly became a welcoming haven for multidisciplinary creation, using all media and all languages. The arrival of a swarm of new exhibitors of all ages and the rich art program for 2011 attest to a renewed growth in popularity.
 Dean WILLIAMS, Abstract (Visible secret), 150x120 cm.
The first Salon d’Automne was held on October 31, 1903, in the Petit Palais, on the initiative of Frantz Jourdain (1847-1935)—a Belgian architect (the “La Samaritaine” department store), writer, great lover of art and the president of the art critics’ union—and friends, including architect Hector Guimard, painters Eugène Carrière, Félix Vallotton and Edouard Vuillard. Based on the “ethic of the brotherhood of the arts,” the Salon d’Automne sought to provide a platform for new artists and introduce the general public to the most innovative movements of the times: Nabis, Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, School of Paris, Art Deco, Expressionism, Op Art, Abstraction. Strenghtened in 2004, the Salon d’Automne has pursued its personal path, far from the free-for-all battleground of some commercial fairs.
A permanent renewal
This year again, 550 professional artists from France and every corner of the world will show works of an extreme variety. Organized in different sections (from painting to sculpture and architecture, from mural art to engraving, from photography to artists’ books, from abstraction to figuration), the Salon d’Automne displays a large panorama of contemporary creation. It also includes debates, a fashion show, poetic interludes and various manifestations of urban art proposed by the Académie des Banlieues, as well as a concert-performance by Nima Sarkechik and Jérémie Dauliac, a hip-hop concert and a monumental graphic performance on cellophane.
 BOLDI, Archer, 112x70x20 cm
Since its first production in 1903, the Salon d’Automne has steadily welcomed foreign delegations while bringing its art to other European countries and, after 1970, to Japanese audiences, thanks to efforts by the painter François Baron Renouard (1918-2009). After showing in Beijing in 2003, the Salon d’Automne opened in Galicia (Spain), an event in which José Diaz Fuentes, the Galician sculptor, was a decisive influence. In November-December 2010, the Salon d’Automne travelled to Moscow. With its major contribution to the Cairo Art and Literature Biennial in 2009, the Salon d’Automne built a solid bridge between its exhibitors in France and Europe and the art community in the Near and Middle East. At a general meeting on May 10, 2011, in São Paulo, the creation of the France-Brazil Salon d’Automne was ratified. The first exhibition will be held in 2013 in São Paulo. The Salon d’Automne is also preparing future developments in China
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