Museum report·Lens
Louvre-Lens opens 'So Cute! The Art of Happiness'
Published 13 September 2026: from 23 September 2026 to 18 January 2027, Louvre-Lens stages 'So Cute! The Art of Happiness', a 300-work exploration of the history of cuteness from antiquity to Murakami, Koons and Sherman.

Through some 300 paintings, sculptures, photographs, contemporary installations and videos, the show charts a chronological journey across millennia, from Poussin's 'Concert of Loves' (c. 1626) and Jules Le Roy's feline scenes to the excesses of Japanese kawaii and global pop culture. Contemporary voices — Takashi Murakami, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Annette Messager and Pierre & Gilles — use the codes of the adorable to ironic, unsettling or critical ends. The exhibition is the first stage of a national cultural cooperation between Louvre-Lens and Strasbourg's museums, whose second chapter, 'Too Cute! The Revenge of Cute', opens in Strasbourg on 19 February 2027.


