In fact, it was in 1973 that the first museum dedicated to the work of a living artist opened in Nice, at the foot of the Cimiez hill, on the grounds of the former Radziwill estate (acquired by the city of Nice, which donated it to the state).
It would host an exceptional collection of paintings and gouaches, soon complemented by many other works donated by Marc and Valentina Chagall to the state. All relate to the Biblical Message to which the artist devoted a part of his work and of which he wishes to amplify the scope in this new house.
Over time, the collection has been enriched with paintings and drawings of different inspirations, and these acquisitions help highlight the importance and diversity of the artist’s creation. An artist with a singular journey, resistant to the categories that art history could establish, who remained distant, in his lifetime, from the then-established groups and movements. Curious about what other artists could produce during the time of cubism, the beginnings of abstraction, or surrealism, he nevertheless kept his distance from the avant-garde, working on an original oeuvre that would not follow a school and, like that of Balthus, Giacometti, Hélion, or Morandi, would have neither followers nor imitators.
Chagall’s art is not valued for the influence exerted but precisely for its exemplary uniqueness. Free from any ties, the painter would continue his research, exploring themes dear to him and which he would treat throughout his entire life: Vitebsk, his native village, Bella, his first wife, the window of the studio through which his real or imagined worlds entered, the bestiaries with hybrid creatures and, of course, the episodes of the Bible, largely reinterpreted by him.
Among Chagall’s recurring themes, there is one – the self-portrait – that we have chosen, in this commemorative year, to showcase by organizing a major exhibition during the summer.
Indeed, dozens of paintings and drawings, many previously unseen, that the artist produced throughout his career will be visible in “In Front of the Mirror, Self-Portraits, Couples and Apparitions,” an exhibition co-organized with the RMN-Grand Palais, which will display the astonishing diversity of the subject treated.
Associated with this important event, the towns of Vence and Saint-Paul de Vence will simultaneously present the works from our museum around the Biblical Message and a beautiful series of photographs, a sort of reportage on the painter’s travels.
by Maurice Fréchuret, director of the National Museums of the 20th Century.
