Exhibitions and museums for sunny days

Sunny days, sunny days… The mood is bright and the time is right for wandering and discovery! I’ve laced up my seven-league boots once again to help you discover some lovely museums and exhibitions, while waiting for Mademoiselle Bon Plan to take the helm again, which should be very soon…

I will first take you to see a double Picasso exhibition at the Vieille Charité centre in Marseille and the Mucem, a very beautiful museum where we will also linger in front of the amusing display of “Love from A to Z”. Then, off to Sars-Poteries, in the North, to discover the glass artist Udo Zembok and the superb collection of the Musverre.

A little getaway to Gouda, in the Netherlands, to share my big crush of the moment, Henk Helmantel. And we will finish on the French Riviera to rediscover the Grimaldi Castle in Antibes and its modern art collection, including many Picasso pieces.

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“Picasso, Imaginary Travels” in Marseille

Picasso as a traveler? The theme had never been explored until now. And with good reason, because it must be said that the artist was not, strictly speaking, a globetrotter. Outside of the south of France and his beloved Spain, he took relatively few trips. He went to Holland, Italy, England, Poland, and that is about it!!

The theme of travel, however, allows us to beautifully contrast the artist’s works with a certain number of objects and cultures that inspired him. First stop, the Vieille Charité centre!

Like Henri Rousseau (the customs officer) who painted his magnificent jungles, inspired by Galeries Lafayette catalogs, the great Pablo (who loved to dress up) traveled mainly by proxy. His friends sent him postcards during their trips, and he kept them until he had built a real collection.

In fact, apart from Italy, which directly influenced his work several times (his monumental bathers of the 1920s), the traveling atmosphere that emanates from his works comes more from his interest in other cultures that he discovered at the Trocadéro Museum of Ethnography or during his random strolls.

He thus became passionate about African art after discovering a Fang mask from Gabon in André Derain‘s studio. And he would also represent numerous odalisques and oriental scenes based on the works of Delacroix.

"Picasso, Imaginary Travels", until June 24th

Vieille Charité Centre
2 rue de la Charité, 13002 Marseille

Tel: +33 (0)4 91 14 58 80/56
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Full price: €12 ; reduced price: €8

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The second part of the exhibition held at the Mucem focuses more specifically on the artist’s collaboration with Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. It shows his discovery of popular Neapolitan and Spanish arts and entertainment. Posters, puppets, costumes, votive offerings, sketches of stage curtains… We finish on a high note!

And also: "Picasso, Arts and Popular Traditions", until June 24th

Mucem
7 promenade Robert Laffont, 13002 Marseille

Tel: +33 (0)4 84 35 13 13
Open every day except Tuesday from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM

Single ticket for all exhibitions: Full price €9.50 / reduced price €5 / Family rate (2 adults and 5 children maximum) €14

The tip: combined ticket for both Picasso exhibitions for €15

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“Love from A to Z” at the Mucem (Marseille)

Fort Saint-Jean, very close to the main Mucem building, is a lovely place for a walk, facing the sea and a stone’s throw from the Old Port. It also hosts exhibitions, particularly on the theme of popular arts and traditions in France and Mediterranean countries.

This time, as part of the MP 2018 event, it focuses on love and presents its different facets in the form of a rather surprising (and sometimes hilarious!) A-to-Z primer.

The objects come from their collections and range from wedding clothes to engagement gifts, including beds, jewelry, mermaid sculptures… They all illustrate the great survey conducted among Italian, Moroccan, Icelandic, Tunisian, English, Russian, French, Serbian, and Israeli couples. And the cultural differences are significant!

Seduction, marriage, eroticism, jealousy, romanticism, declaration, breakup, soulmate… The angles covered are very varied. “A for Angel” inaugurates the journey, looking back at the character of Cupid, the winged cherub, who shoots his arrows, instantly making the person who receives them fall in love.

Then it’s “B for Jewelry” where we discover the faith ring that lovers exchanged in France, or the forgiveness pin that young Breton women would attach to their shawls as a sign of mutual tenderness.

Moving past “C for Heart” to linger on “D for Conjugal Duty”… Bold and feathered lingerie, found in a souk in Damascus (Syria), illustrates the point; it is used for the wedding night and is accompanied by a remote control that allows you to activate certain ornaments decorating these alluring undergarments. We assume it is held by the gentleman… Romantic, right?

"Love from A to Z", until August 27th

Mucem (see practical information above)

Note: from July 7th to September 2nd, the museum is open from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM

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Udo Zembok and the Musverre of Sars-Poteries

All gray outside, all color inside! The Musverre surprised us with its splendid contemporary blue stone architecture, inaugurated in 2016. In fact, this museum dedicated exclusively to glass had existed since 1969, but in this new building, it takes on an extraordinary majesty.

The event these days is the exhibition dedicated to Udo Zembok. This German artist, who currently lives in Menton, is very influenced by Mark Rothko. He works on notions of light, color, and space.

His thermoformed works, very sober and resolutely abstract, superimpose several layers of glass covered with enamel, which gives an impression of exceptional transparency and depth.

He presents Heart II, a vibrant red installation that invites the viewer to get up close to experience physical immersion in the color. All around, about fifteen works gravitate. Half-paintings, half-sculptures, these luminous screens offer a singular spectacle sometimes evoking the sunset over the sea…

The permanent collection reminds us of the history of the glassworks that flourished in Sars-Poteries between 1802 and 1937. Thanks to the village priest, Louis Mériaux, they have their museum today. We first discover the dozens of “bousillés”, those popular and colorful pieces that the workers made during their leisure time to offer for birthdays or weddings.

Then there is the entire international contemporary collection where the Czechs and Slovaks have always reigned supreme. Glass in all its forms and for all tastes. Majestic, radiant, magical!

"Udo Zembok, Open Space", until September 28th, 2018

Musverre
76 rue du Général-de-Gaulle, 59216 Sars-Poteries

Tel: +33 (0)3 59 73 16 16
Open Tuesday to Sunday, from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM

Full price: €6 / reduced price: €4
The tip: €1.50 for Happy Hour (after 5:00 PM),
for 18-25 year-olds and holders of minimum social benefits and their families

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“Faith, Harmony, Silence” by Henk Helmantel at the Gouda Museum

Henk Helmantel is highly appreciated by the Dutch and elsewhere, particularly in China where he exhibits regularly. In France, he is hardly known. And yet, this inspired septuagenarian has what it takes to seduce! A painter of the beauty of things, he attaches as much importance to an old quince as to perky redcurrants, treating an old cardboard box, a pretty vase, or some archaeological find with the same respect.

His universe is that of his interior, sober, without ostentation, which sometimes reminds one of the paintings of Rembrandt or Vermeer. “I am a figurative Mondrian, an abstract realist” he writes. As for his technique, it is that of fine superimposed layers of oil paint, which was also that of the old masters. One of the best ways to capture light and render transparency.

To celebrate his 50 years of creation, the Gouda Museum welcomes him in its halls. Among them, three are organized successively around the colors red, blue, and white, sometimes highlighting the expressive character, sometimes the abstraction, sometimes the silence of his paintings.

In the midst of the works, a few personal objects that served as a source of inspiration have been arranged, such as a Chinese chest of drawers, a vase, or ancient sculptures. A painting that invites contemplation.

"Henk Helmantel, Faith, Harmony and Silence", until June 17th

Gouda Museum
Oosthaven 9 & Achter de Kerk 14, 2801 JX Gouda

Tel: +31 (0)182 33 10 00
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Full price €10 / 5 to 17 years old €4 / Youth rate €8

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The Grimaldi Castle-Picasso Museum, in Antibes

These old stones that overlook the sea were built on the ancient acropolis of the Greek city of Antipolis. Over the centuries, they housed bishops, a Monegasque family (the Grimaldis), the city hall, a barracks, until they were transformed into a museum in 1925.

In 1945, its curator Romuald Dor de la Souchère invited Picasso to work there for several months. Enthusiastic, he produced numerous paintings, drawings, and ceramics in solar harmonies, marrying the colors of the sky, the sand, and the sea.

Happy bacchanals, satyrs, little fauns, and centaurs, owls, and sea urchins joyfully populate his works left on deposit to the city of Antibes. They constitute the heart of the Picasso Museum collections which would be created in 1966.

Subsequently, purchases and donations made it possible to expand the collection with works by Hartung, Staël, Balthus, César, and many other artists. On the magnificent terrace paved with “calades” (pebbles laid on their edge), Miró and Bernard Pages keep company with Germaine Richier, and Anne and Patrick Poirier. When the sun goes down, in the late afternoon, you would think you were seeing a mirage…

Grimaldi Castle-Picasso Museum
place Mariejol, Antibes

Tel: +33 (0)4 92 90 54 20/26
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM (until June 14th)

Without interruption from June 15th to September 15th
Opening of all spaces from May 2nd to 20th then from June 26th

From May 22nd to June 25th: 1st floor closed for renovation (contemporary collection)

Full price €6 / Reduced price €3 (students, seniors, large families, etc.)
Free admission: under 18s; 16-25 lol card, job seekers, etc.

Photo credits: Valérie Collet