Cécile Debray

Cécile Debray

Cécile Debray is Director of the Musée de l’Orangerie since June 2017. She has been curator in charge of modern collections in the Musée National d’Artmoderne / Centre Pompidou from 2008 till 2017, in charge of exhibitions programs at the Grand Palais, RMN from 2005 till 2008 and curator at the Musée de la Ville de Paris from 2000 to 2005.
She has curated numerous international exhibitions such as Elles@Centrepompidou, 2009 (Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2009/2011; Seattle, SAM, 2012/13; Rio, CCBB, 2013); Lucian Freud. L’atelier (Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2010) ; Matisse, Cézanne, Picasso… L’aventure des Stein / The Steinscollect (San Francisco, SFMoMA ; Paris, Grand Palais, 2011 ; New York, MET, 2012) ; Matisse. Paires et séries / Matisse. In search of true painting (Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2012; Copenhague SMK; New York, MET 2013); Marcel Duchamp. La peinture même (Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2014);Francis Bacon / Bruce Nauman. Face à face in Musée Fabre of Montpellier (fromJune to October 2017);Les Contes cruels de Paola Rego (Musée de l’Orangerie, Oct. 2018-Jan. 2019), Le Modèle noir. De Matisse à Géricault (Musée d’Orsay, March-July 2019);Préhistoire. Uneénigmemoderne (Centre Pompidou, May-Sept. 2019).
Member of several panels, artistic price, and committee (CNL, Revue de l’Art, IESA, Casa de Velazquez…), president of Archives of Women Artists Research and Exhibitions (AWARE), she is also in charge of the annual Artist Residencies Festival, Viva Villa (Villa Medicis, Casa de Velazquez, Villa Kujoyama). Historian of art, teacher at the Ecole du Louvre, she publishes about historical avant-gardes and modern and contemporary painting.
She has conceived a new presentation of the collection of the Musée de l’Orangerie in renovated space (September 2020).