On the occasion of the 45th anniversary of its Society of Friends, the Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation is presenting, from December 17, 2011, to March 18, 2012, an exhibition featuring 50 artists from the collection built by the Friends over the years through their acquisitions.
“This collection within the collection, which provides insight into the major questions posed by art about the individual, ideas, and forms over almost half a century, is being presented in its entirety for the first time on this anniversary,” says Olivier Kaeppelin, curator of the exhibition and director of the Maeght Foundation.
This collection expresses the friendship, values, intellectual complicity, and commitment between the Society of Friends and the Maeght Foundation. These connections between Marguerite and Aimé Maeght and the artists were the very origin of the Foundation. These values have always driven their artistic choices.
The enrichment of the Foundation’s collection thanks to the Society of Friends reflects this history. “Friendship has always been and will always remain at the heart of the Maeght Foundation and its collections,” emphasizes Adrien Maeght, president of the Foundation.
A Collection Within the Collection
The works acquired by the Friends form a collection within the collection. The quality of their choices reflects a sensitivity, a diversity, a curiosity that gives great value to this ensemble of about a hundred works. They complement the Foundation’s collection.
The exhibition of these paintings, sculptures, and drawings does not aim to present a panorama of the history of art of the last five decades, but rather to offer a poetic, aesthetic approach to the questions raised by the artists.
In 1966, Marguerite Maeght, surrounded and supported by some enthusiasts, created the Society of Friends of the Maeght Foundation. For the first time today, the acquisitions made by the Friends are brought together in an exhibition and in a volume reproducing all the works. Artists Erró, Peter Klasen, Jean Le Gac, and Jacques Monory have created an original, signed, and numbered lithograph for the deluxe edition of this book (limited to 100 copies).
-The Marguerite and Aimé Maeght Foundation is a private foundation of modern and contemporary art, located near the village of Saint-Paul de Vence, 25 km from Nice. The Maeght Foundation has one of Europe’s most important collections of 20th-century paintings, sculptures, and graphic works. It organizes major thematic exhibitions like retrospectives (summer 2011: Chillida) or more contemporary exhibitions (spring 2011: Erik Dietman).
Open all year, the Maeght Foundation welcomes 200,000 visitors annually in a unique architectural ensemble, designed by Josep Lluís Sert, to showcase modern and contemporary art in all its forms. Painters and sculptors collaborated with the Catalan architect by creating works integrated into the building and nature: the Giacometti courtyard, the Miró labyrinth filled with sculptures and ceramics, Chagall and Tal Coat’s mural mosaics, Braque’s pool and stained glass, Bury’s fountain. The complex mixes indoor and outdoor spaces with the sculpture garden, courtyards, terraces, and patios, exhibition rooms, chapel, library, and bookstore.
Inaugurated on July 28, 1964, the Foundation was born from the friendship of Aimé Maeght, art dealer and Parisian gallerist, with the great names of modern art, including Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Marc Chagall, and Eduardo Chillida. Recognized as being of public utility, it aims to receive, acquire, restore, conserve and exhibit artworks to the public; it provides artists with the opportunity to meet and work together.
Today, the Maeght family maintains and perpetuates this spirit. Adrien Maeght presides over the Foundation’s Board of Directors, which brings together prominent figures, state representatives, and national museum personnel, as well as members of the Maeght family. Olivier Kaeppelin is its director.
