This exhibition, presented until November 7, 2011, is organized by the Grand Palais and the national museums of the 20th century of the Alpes-Maritimes. It is part of the event: Contemporary Art and the French Riviera – A Territory for Experimentation, 1951-2011.
Through a panorama of sixty years of creation on the Côte d’Azur, the national museums of the Alpes-Maritimes (Léger in Biot, Chagall in Nice, Picasso in Vallauris), dedicated to three great painters of modern art, present the approaches of artists who have followed in their footsteps to question the pictorial medium.
This history of painting developed “differently” reminds us that in contemporary times, the Côte d’Azur is always a formidable laboratory that continues to produce and host artists with exceptional dynamism.
At the Fernand Léger National Museum, the historical aspect of this exhibition unfolds with about twenty emblematic artists from the 60s and 70s.
Beyond established artistic movements such as Lyrical Abstraction, New Realism, Supports/Surfaces, or Group 70, a common momentum animates these artists who question the processes and materials of painting.
The Marc Chagall National Museum showcases the approaches of artists who, from the 80s to today, have chosen to paint “differently.” Resuming the questions from the 70s, subsequent generations continue to worry about the identity of this medium and its limits.
At the Pablo Picasso National Museum, La Guerre et la Paix, Aïcha Hamu is invited to deploy, in the chapel space, an installation of hybrid forms in red leather, weaving, according to the artist’s formula, “drawing everywhere and almost nowhere.”
List of featured artists:
Fernand Léger National Museum, Biot
Marcel Alocco, Arman, Ben, Alberto Burri, Louis Cane, Louis Chacallis,
Max Charvolen, Daniel Dezeuze, Noël Dolla, Claude Gilli, Raymond Hains,
Hans Hartung, Vivien Isnard, Yves Klein, Serge Maccaferri, Robert Malaval,
Martin Miguel, Bernard Pagès, Patrick Saytour, André Valensi, Bernar Venet,
Claude Viallat.
Marc Chagall National Museum
Michel Blazy, Julien Bouillon, BP, Marc Chevalier, Dominique Figarella,
Patrick des Gachons, Jean-Baptiste Ganne, Sandra Lecoq, Pascal Pinaud,
Jérôme Robbe, Adrian Schiess, Cédric Teisseire, Wilson Trouvé.
Pablo Picasso National Museum, La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris
Aïcha Hamu
Exhibition Curators:
Maurice Fréchuret, Director of the national museums of the 20th century in the Alpes-Maritimes,
Chief Curator of Heritage.
Ariane Coulondre, Curator at the Fernand Léger National Museum.
MAURICE FRÉCHURET presents this exhibition:
300 artists, more than 50 venues scattered throughout the territory, dozens of proposals and partnerships: the great event Contemporary Art and the Côte d’Azur is about to open.
For over three years, those who conceived it, those who organized it, those who joined it have worked for its success and have gathered all the elements so that it appears, to the largest audience, for what it really is: a major event in the artistic history of the French Riviera. 60 years of production will thus be presented for more than four months in museums, art centers, galleries, exhibition spaces in a region very rich in all these structures.
Six decades hence, following the modern period and sometimes in opposition to its propositions, attempt to find their identity, to build their own architecture.
Confronted with the significant changes of a history that nearly engulfed all humanity in the projects of sinister and murderous ideologies, solicited by the promising impulses of Reconstruction, and soon by the exuberant calls of the commercial society, like everyone, subject to its continuous transformations, the artists, wherever they are established, construct their works by taking into account such contexts or attempting to shield them from it.
Since World War II, the generations of artists who have succeeded on the French Riviera cannot escape this reality. They had to adapt or respond to it.
Due to its geographical location, the region was once a retreat and refuge zone, but the feeling of tranquillity once associated with it eventually dissipated under the pounding blows of an increasingly brutal history.
Today, for different reasons, it is also a place traversed by multiple movements – the traditional seasonal holidays, of course, but also, more recently, economic or political migrations.
To these human factors are added those of the commercial spectacle of which the Côte d’Azur is undoubtedly the most glamorous showcase, or, depending on the critical eye, the most aggressive.
Images abound that make it a region where, under the lights of heliotrope happiness, life seems sweet and easy, light and tranquil.
It is obviously possible to prove that reality is different and it does not necessarily adhere to these soothing clichés.
All of this, the artists’ works speak about or not, depending on the stance taken, according to the idea they have of their practice. Proponents of purely self-referential art will express their rejection of any content other than a processual flattening of the artistic practice.
Those advocating for art more determined by the ebb and flow of social or political life will not hide their will to intervene in its unfolding.
The historical exhibition Contemporary Art and the French Riviera aims to account, through its various components, for what, artistically, constitutes this region.
The presence of artists, who came very early to the Côte d’Azur, is not least a sign of the vitality of a territory open to so much experimentation.
The creation and the opening of numerous museums, foundations, art centers, schools following their presence give the region its reputation as a “great creative workshop” evoked by the great art historian André Chastel.
One might think of what, often outside of any declared political intention, the artists have brought to this region.
Thus, to the sole names of Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Léger, Goetz, Cocteau, Magnelli, or Hartung are associated reference sites.
To those of Maeght, of Honegger are linked exemplary collections accessible to the public.
To those yet again of some art lovers who have generously made available their collections or documentary resources are attached structures open to students and other researchers.
All these initiatives – and the still numerous and active presence of artists who live, work, and produce there – make the Côte d’Azur an exceptional territory, likely to be studied by art historians.
Far from any senseless identity or regionalist quest, the research conducted since the project’s adoption aims only to study the links between a territory and the artists who work there, to ask the question of any specificities of what has been or continues to be done there, or to highlight what, in the proposals of Azurean artists, echoes with national and international artistic production.
