Unprecedented success for this summer cultural event honoring one of the masters of 20th-century painting, registering a record number of entries with 281,306 visitors!!
This exceptional event resulted in an equally exceptional turnout. This attendance generated over 915,000 euros in ticket sales. Thanks to this achievement, “Nice 2013. A Summer for Matisse” ranks first among the summer exhibitions in the region.
After several months of preparations, it remained to be seen whether this enhanced exhibition would “work,” as they say, if it would touch the heart and eye of the public. In short, if it would captivate.
Well, the success was unprecedented.
To elevate these exhibitions to the highest quality level, the City called upon an exceptional general curator, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, former Minister of Culture, former President of the Georges Pompidou National Art and Culture Center, and until recently, President of the Public Establishment of the Château de Versailles Museum and National Estate.
His role was decisive in defining the theme of the exhibitions and obtaining the most prestigious loans, including “The Sorrows of the King,” which the Centre Georges Pompidou had never lent to any museum.
A Summer for Matisse was an exhibition with an innovative concept, remarkably orchestrated, an exhibition that the public applauds.
According to Christian Estrosi, Mayor of Nice: “On the world map, it is clear that the winning cities are the creative ones. This ‘Summer for Matisse’ makes us worthy to be part of this exclusive club of creative cities.
Our city benefits from a rich and diverse cultural past reflected in a significant number of museums and galleries, offering a particularly wide range combining ancient, modern, and contemporary art, photography, sciences, archaeology.
Our collections hold treasures like the ‘Crucifixion’ by Bronzino or the Dufy collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Matisse collection, the works of Yves Klein and Niki de Saint Phalle at MAMAC, the collections of musical instruments at the Lascaris Palace, the decorative arts collection at the Masséna Museum, the Charles Nègre collection at the Theatre of Photography and Image, top-tier archaeological and prehistoric sites in Cimiez and at Terra Amata, and the exceptional collection of the Natural History Museum.”
“While the Matisse Museum in Cimiez celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, at the end of this particular summer, Matisse has become definitively and for the whole world, the brilliant painter of our city,” he concluded.
