Suzanne Valadon, "La Chambre Bleue, 1923" Collection Centre Pompidou, diffusion RMN, photo: Jacqueline Hyde

There is a certain creative exuberance that is lively and entertaining as one scurries around taking in hundreds of works from different countries in every imaginable media. I loved the prankish humor of the New York-based Guerrilla Girls posters and French artist Agnes Thurnauer's colorful giant badge's with female versions of famous male artists' names - Annie Warhol, Francine Bacon and Jacqueline Pollock - to name just a few. There are seven rather vague thematic sections that seek to create some order in the profusion of diverse works that span the late 19th century to recent years.

It would have helped to introduce the show with the section entitled "Pioneers" that includes some really fine examples of works by Suzanne Valadon, Marie Laurenci and Dora Maar. Instead these works appear on the 5th floor in an almost anticlimactic fashion after one has viewed the entire 4th floor collection of Body Art by such artists as Gina Pane, or Free Fire that includes works by Nikki de Saint Phalle and  "Wordworks" that explores women artists' role in the emergence of Conceptual Art. "Eccentric Abstraction" highlights unusual tactile materials such as woven raffia structures attached to the ceiling or finely sewn fabric paintings.

Most works are accompanied by a few words from the artist herself or else a quote from a woman writer like Simone de Beauvoir or Virginia Woolf. In the text that accompanies her sewn installation piece "Chambre 202" created in 1970, Dorothea Tanning writes: "There is excess and everything is in disorder. Everything is wondrous, iridescent, obsession, double, multiple and alive. Everything moves. My rebellion is so ingrained that it is like breathing."

The show's curator Camille Morineau discovered women's studies while studying art in the States at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. It took over 20 years for this women's art exhibition project to actually happen in the best conditions possible, using works from the Pompidou Center's permanent collection. The exhibition is also an interesting peek at the acquisition policies of the past 50 years as it does not represent just one curator's tastes. An estimated 17% of the 5,000 artists included in the Pompidou Center's collection are women.

This new installation is meant to be an alternative history and not just a feminist art tract. It hopes to "write a new history of art and to bring out the significance of female figures hitherto forgotten."

The basic lines of the show (including 500 works by more than 200 women artists) follow the major 20th century art movements. Filling in some of the gaps in the Pompidou Center collection, galleries and collectors loaned works for the exhibition by such artists as Agnes Denes, Hannah Wilke and Alexis Smith.  

Although "elle" provides many interesting discoveries some significant woman artists are not adequately presented. For example Frida Kahlo is only represented by one small solitary self-portrait. Despite some shortcomings, this is definitely a show to see. It is provocative, entertaining and a significant international overview of the contributions made by women artists over the last century.

elles@centrepompidou at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. Place Georges-Pompidou, Paris 75004. Until May 2010. Metro: Rambuteau. Entrance 12 E/9 E Info: http://www.centrepompidou.fr