Paris show explores art’s enduring obsession with the end of the world

An exhibition in Paris is proof that artists are forever fascinated with the end of the world.

Apocalypse: Yesterday and Tomorrow at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France showcases around 300 works ranging from the 9th century to the present day — including iconic pieces like Henri Rousseau’s La Guerre — which have been inspired by the apocalyptic themes of The Book of Revelation.

At the heart of the exhibition is a paradox, Le Monde wrote: The artists worked with great zeal to create masterpieces that they believed would be “doomed to disappear in the final cataclysm.” But they strove to depict the apocalypse “in such a seductive way as to distract the mind from the horror of this terrible outcome.”