Pontus Hultén, the Swede who invented the Centre Pompidou

Pontus Hultén "had the soul of an artist rather than that of a museum director," proclaimed sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle. The visual artist knew this better than anyone: her life, like that of her great love, Jean Tinguely, also a sculptor, would have been completely different if their paths had not crossed with this extraordinary Swede, who revolutionized the landscape of 20th ^- century museums. Upon his death in 2006, the New York Times hailed him as a "tireless champion of contemporary art," recalling that he had founded no fewer than eight museums around the world, from Venice (Italy) to Basel (Switzerland).

Yet, the man who carried the Centre Pompidou through thick and thin, then reigned supreme there from brilliant coups to cult exhibitions from 1977 to 1981, remains unknown to many. And, for those who loved or assisted him, a one-of-a-kind director, who invented for Paris an institution like no other. A "Prometheus who brings fire to men, but who suffers from it," described his friend Niki. An exhibition opening on June 20 at the Grand Palais and running for more than six months evokes the explosive complicity of the trio formed by Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and Pontus Hultén.

There he is, in the archive photographs, a strapping, mustachioed fellow bustling about, lugging around, spray-painting, on the construction site of Hon – en katedral ( She – a cathedral ), at the Moderna Museet, in Stockholm. This crazy project was conceived in 1966 by Niki de Saint Phalle: a "large pagan goddess", an XXL version (25 meters long) of her curvy Nanas which were beginning to make her famous.

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