The best exhibitions in Nice this summer 2026: Matisse, Chagall, Villa Arson and photography

Seven exhibitions in five locations, from Cimiez to Mougins, until September. Dates, prices, hours: here’s what you need to see before back to school.

The Nice summer isn’t only about pebble beaches. From Cimiez to the Old Town, passing through the Saint-Barthélemy hill, the 2026 season offers a dense program — including an exhibition that, on its own, justifies the trip.

Matisse and Yves Saint Laurent, the event of the season

It’s the summer’s big event. The Matisse Museum Nice and the Yves Saint Laurent Museum Paris have jointly designed “Henri Matisse – Yves Saint Laurent. The beautiful, fashion and happiness”, presented from June 17 to September 28, 2026.

The concept: bring into dialogue the works of two creators who spent their careers erasing the boundary between fine arts and applied arts. The display draws on the collections of the Nice museum and those of the Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, supplemented by French and international loans.

During the holidays, the museum deploys a rich family program: workshops on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2pm to 4pm from July 6 to August 26, twenty-minute introductory tours, and The Creators’ Studio for ages 6-11 (two sessions in July, including July 23-25). Online registration and payment are mandatory.

Chagall at work: the second installment, until September 21

The Marc Chagall National Museum presents the second part of “Chagall at work. An exceptional loan to the museum”, from May 23 to September 21, 2026. The exhibition is organized in two parts with rotating works: the first part took place from February 7 to May 17.

At the heart of the project, 141 works loaned by Bella and Meret Meyer, granddaughters of the artist, which entered national collections via the Pompidou Center. The collection is less of a retrospective than a studio visit: sketches, experiments, monumental projects. It includes sixty-four sketches for curtains and costumes for Stravinsky’s The Firebird, the model of the Palais Garnier Opera ceiling, twelve ceramics and sculptures created during his stay in Vence in 1949, and twenty-four collages from the 1960s-1970s.

For activities: “Comic Strip” workshops for families — Chagall composed his canvases like comic pages, several episodes of the same story in a single frame — Wednesdays July 1, 8, 15 and 22, Fridays July 10, 24 and 31, then in August (Thursday 6, Mondays 17 and 24, Friday 28), at 2:30pm. Note the midday closure from 1pm to 2:30pm: however, the garden and bookstore-gift shop remain accessible.

Villa Arson: two exhibitions, free entry

Villa Arson opened its double summer event on July 10, running until September 27.

“Staring at the Sun” brings together thirty-five young 2026 graduates of the school, curated by Martha Kirszenbaum — independent curator, founder of Fahrenheit in Los Angeles, curator of the French Pavilion for Laure Prouvost at the 2019 Venice Biennale. A signature that says a lot about the ambition of the exhibition.

In parallel, Dany Albiach presents “Where the day gives way”, a solo exhibition curated by Pauline Vermeren. A 2024 graduate of Villa Arson, Albiach received the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation award in February, of which this exhibition is the culmination. Drawing, photography, sculpture and screen printing: he works with notions of trace, memory and reactivation of the past.

Additional argument, not insignificant in July: the site itself. An 18th-century residence set within brutalist architecture of concrete and Var pebbles designed by Michel Marot, 2.3 hectares of Mediterranean gardens overlooking the Bay of Angels. And it’s free.

Photography: three options, from Old Town Nice to Mougins

The Charles Nègre Photography Museum, housed in a former 1930s electrical plant with its overhead crane still in place, presents “Levitation” by Mathieu Forget until September 27. Eighty photographs dedicated to movement, the French artist’s first museum retrospective. At €5 admission, it’s the best value for money in the selection.

In the adjoining gallery, Claudia Bevilacqua exhibits “La Dolce Nizza” until September 6: a Nice in black and white, sunny, where women play the comedy of life like in a 1960s Italian film. Nice Premium recently published an article about this exhibition.

To extend the experience, you must leave Nice. The Mougins Photography Center devotes from July 4 to October 4 a vast retrospective to Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen (1935-2024), “Echoes of the Ordinary”. First comprehensive presentation of this work in France, part of the Grand Arles Express, in resonance with the Arles Encounters. Van Manen had traded her professional equipment for a simple 35mm to photograph the women of Appalachian coal mines in 1985; this gesture sums up a documentary practice based on long-term engagement and proximity. Forty years of series, from Siberia to China.

The bargain: the 4-day pass

The Nice Museums Pass 4 days at €15 gives access to all municipal museums and galleries: Charles Nègre, Matisse, Jules Chéret Fine Arts, Anatole Jakovsky Naïve Art, Masséna, Palais Lascaris, Cimiez Archaeology, Terra Amata, Natural History Museum. With Matisse at €12 and Charles Nègre at €5, it pays for itself on the second museum. Group version at €10 per person from ten visitors onwards.

Residents of the Nice Côte d’Azur Metropolis have better: the Nice Museums Pass is free for those over 18, valid for three years, and can be picked up at any municipal museum with an ID and proof of residency less than three months old. Residents under 18 from the Metropolis enter free without having to provide anything.

Two reservations: the Chagall museum, being national, is not covered by either pass. And the MAMAC remains closed for renovation until 2028.

Our advice

Matisse–YSL and Chagall are just minutes apart on the Cimiez hill, but doing them back-to-back in the same morning would be a shame: these are two dense exhibitions. Better to start with Chagall at opening at 10am — the garden is still cool — and save Matisse for another day.

And if you can only do one: Villa Arson, late afternoon. It’s free, closes at 7pm in July-August, and the panorama from the terraces is worth the climb by itself.