Major summer exhibitions

This summer sees a profusion of exhibitions, with subjects ranging from flowers, landscapes and the sea to highly abstract, inventive and even spiritual representations.

Renato Mambor, Zebra e Colosseo, 1965, peinture à l’émail sur toile, 118 × 142 cm. Collection Dello Schiavo, Rome. © Renato Mambor

Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain

Vita Nuova, new life

Nice’s museum of modern and contemporary art is devoting Nice’s museum of modern and contemporary art is devoting its summer exhibition to Italian creativity from 1960 to 1975. This period saw a new generation of visual artists hold their first exhibitions in Genoa, Florence, Milan, Rome and Turin, as well as the death of one of Italy’s most unconventional filmmakers, Pier Paolo Pasolini. New visions emerged in the visual arts, design and film during this time, and the 130 works on display here bear witness to this. It’s worth noting that Villa Arson, the Nice art school, has been examining Italian art since 1990.

Nice, place Yves Klein.
Tél. 04 97 13 42 01 - mamac-nice.org

Villa Kérylos

Antoine Pierini, en rêvant la Méditerranée

Villy Kérylos was built in the early 20th century by a passionate Hellenist. Now it is presenting the works of glass artist Antoine Pierini, who grew up in Biot. A member of the Studio Glass Movement, which spearheaded the use of glass as an artistic medium in its own right, Pierini completed his training overseas. His pieces are characterised by sleek lines in search of the essential. Reed columns and an interior sea inhabit the exhibition space, while contemporary forms echo ancient amphorae, and the philosophy of Albert Camus in L’Homme révolté is ever present. The works are shot through with the light of the south, caught between restraint and excess.

Beaulieu-sur-Mer, rue Gustave Eiffel. Tél. 04 93 01 01 44 - villakerylos.fr

Musée Picasso Antibes, Jaume Plensa,la lumière veille

Plensa’s figures punctuate Place Massena in Nice with their colours, while his Nomade, whose body is made up of letters, looks out at the horizon in Antibes harbour. In addition to these monumental sculptures, the Catalan artist is also a fervent champion of graphic art. This exhibition, the first retrospective on the artist in a French museum, brings together 90 works made between 1982 and 2022, which create a silent world in black and white that invite visitors to meditate.

Antibes, place Mariejol.
Tél. 04 92 90 54 20
antibes-juanlespins.com

Hockney – Matisse. Un paradis retrouvé

You only have to look upwards in Nice to discover an Eden proliferating on the facades of buildings built from the Belle Epoque period onwards. Flowers are part of the popular culture and compete with each other during the carnival. This year, the theme is at the heart of the Nice Biennale of Contemporary Art, and is explored in an array of exhibitions including the one organised by the Musée Matisse, which highlights the astonishing parallels between the Fauve master and British artist David Hockney. The works on display include Hockney’s latest series of flowers on the iPad.

Nice, 164 avenue des Arènes de Cimiez.
Tél. 04 93 81 08 08 - musée-matisse-nice.org

Musée de Vence

Jean Dubuffet, humeurs vençoises

Dubuffet was a major force in the art brut movement after 1945, which was informed by the rebellious spirit of its self-taught creators, and is now highly prized by museums. Jean Dubuffet was also strongly connected with the Vence area having worked there for almost 10 years, creating assemblages of prints and experimenting widely with other art techniques. This exhibition is a testament to his inventive spirit.

Vence, 2 place du Frêne.
Tél. 04 93 24 24 23 - vence.fr

Espace de l’Art concret

Gilles Clémet.

Gilles Clément redesigned the gardens of Château de Mouans-Sartoux for the opening of the Donation Albers-Honegger building in 2004. A gardener, landscape designer, botanist and entomologist, Clément opens a dialogue between the different concepts he has explored in relation to landscape, and the contemporary artists in the collection who have investigated our connection with nature. A fruitful encounter.

Mouans-Sartoux, Château de Mouans Tél. 04 93 75 71 50
espacedelartconcret.fr

Centre de la photographie de Mougins

Tom Wood, Every day is Saturday

This summer, Mougins Centre of Photography showcases the historic series of Tom Wood, an Irish photographer whose prints are in the collections of MoMa and the Victoria & Albert Museum. The self-taught artist produced a raw portrait of the working class people of Liverpool and the banks of the Mersey, and is also a master of technique, ranging from the use of outdated film to panoramic shots.

Mougins, 43 rue de l’Eglise - Tél. 04 22 21 52 12
centrephotographiemougins.com

Suquet des artistes Cannes

Orsten Groom, Limbe

The Cannes space continues to welcome important national figures such as Orsten Groom, a multidisciplinary artist of Jewish and Russian-Polish descent currently represented by Templon Gallery. Groom became an amnesiac while studying at the Beaux-Arts, and made a name for himself during the Covid pandemic by opening a clandestine private space at a secret address in Paris. The painter’s powerful canvases are like networks that shoot off in opposite directions, catching the eye with the materiality of their colours.

Cannes, rue Saint-Dizier - Tél. 04 97 06 44 90 - cannes.com

Centre d’Art La Malmaison & Villa Domergue

Agnès Varda, Plages, cabanes et coquillages

It is an immense pleasure to rediscover the world of this poet of realism and a key filmmaker of the French New Wave. Varda’s films managed to capture striking everyday human experiences and bring them to the big screen with rare intensity. This exhibition focuses on Varda the beachcomber, who walked along the Riviera’s beaches in search of encounters, and presents her moving images, photographs and installations.

La Malmaison Villa Domergue
Cannes, 47 La Croisette. Tél. 04 97 06 45 21 - cannes.com