The big summer exhibitions

From plein air oil painting to abstract art, design and all manner of uses of matter and colour, the Riviera’s art museums unveil their treasures.

By Tanja Stojanov

Villa Paloma, 

Nouveau Musée National de Monaco

Miquel Barceló was born in Majorca, and what seems to be an eye amid the blue of his painting Oblada inevitably calls to mind the eyes that float in the works of his fellow Spaniard Juan Miró. Barcélo’s paintings gaze out at us, blurring the boundaries of space and time, stretching our minds back to prehistory, down to the ocean floor, out into the cosmos. Marine animals —deep in the sea, caught in a net or lying on a slab— are everywhere in his works, which range from painting to pottery, drawing, embroidery and books.

Jusqu’au 10 novembre

Monaco, 56 boulevard du Jardin exotique

Tél. +377 98 98 48 60

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nice

Berthe Morisot in Nice, an Impressionist’s sojourn. 

She was the first woman Impressionist (a movement born 150 years ago), but did you know she painted many views of the Riviera? Sixty of these works have been brought together here, on loan from the Musée d’Orsay, Musée Marmottan Monet and the Prince’s Palace in Monaco. The exhibition offers insight into Berthe Morisot’s sensitivity and quick, light touch, and also includes works by other women artists*. It’s invaluable evidence of women’s creativity on the Côte d’Azur in the Belle Epoque.

* Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès, Marie Bashkirtseff, Louise Breslau.

Jusqu’au 29 septembre

Nice, 33 avenue des Baumettes. Tél. 04 92 15 28 28

Musée Matisse, Nice

Miró Matisse, beyond the images. At first sight the work of Miró is utterly unlike that of Matisse. Matisse: Fauvism and decorative harmony. Miró, born a generation later: Surrealism and disquieting strangeness. But a closer look shows that they both enjoyed deconstructing the Western pictorial tradition, making shapes and colours the basic components of their canvases. Hanging them side by side reveals the deep connections between Matisse’s cutouts and Miró’s floating figures.

Jusqu’au 29 septembre

Nice, 164 avenue des Arènes de Cimiez. Tél. 04 93 81 08 08

Musée Picasso, Antibes

Joan Miró, masterpieces from the Nahmad collection. That makes two Miró exhibitions on the Côte d’Azur this summer. This one is courtesy of Ezra and David Nahmad, two of the world’s leading art collectors, mainly of Picasso (who was a lifelong friend of Miró’s). Twelve Miró works are presented, most rooms containing only one, giving space for contemplation or discussion. Each work has a presence, a magic that we tend to forget when several are hung side by side. One at a time, we enjoy a deeper experience.

Jusqu’au 27 octobre

Antibes, place Mariejol. Tél. 04 92 90 54 20

Villa Arson, Nice

Canemorto, in search of the absolute artwork. Where lies the boundary between reality and fiction in all the fine stories we tell about ourselves? The Canemorto group play with that borderline, taking us on an initiatory trail with a short film and a series of paintings. It’s all the work of three Italian artists who worship the canine divinity Txakurra. Through their adventures and secrets we learn that the mortal remains of Pierre-Joseph Arson, who believed in the transmigration of the soul into another body, were never found.

Jusqu’au 25 août 

Nice, 20 avenue Stephen Liégard

Tél. 04 92 07 73 73

Fondation Hartung Bergman, Antibes

Shared sensitivity: Hartung, Bergman, Haass. She was a friend of Anna-Eva Bergman and Hans Hartung, the abstract painters whose villa-studio in Antibes houses the show. All three lived through the dramas of 20th century Europe and belonged to the same art movement. Terry Haass produced gestural paintings that chimed with Hartung’s and was one of the few to pay tribute to Anna-Eva in her lifetime, through a portfolio of lithographic collages. The work of all three artists is now on show, thanks to the bequest from Terry Haass’ estate last year.

Jusqu’au 27 septembre

Antibes, 173 chemin 

du Valbosquet. 

Tél. 04 93 33 45 92

Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux

Francis Bacon and the golden age of design.In the early 1930s, before he became one of the greatest artists to explore the human condition, Francis Bacon designed furniture. Some of his furniture filtered into the composition of his paintings. Along with furniture loaned by the Francis Bacon MB Art Foundation in Monaco, this show includes pieces by the great French designers who influenced him*: A chrome metal coffee table by André Lurçat, a strikingly geometric velvet rug by Eileen Gray, paintings by Léger and Picasso. Stimulating.

Jusqu’au 5 janvier

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

Musée national 

Fernand Léger, Biot

Léger and the New Realists. While MAMAC in Nice is closed for renovation, its collections are on show in well-chosen museums elsewhere. Léger’s cheerful, colourful, strikingly modern canvases are the perfect foil for works by Niki de Saint-Phalle and many other Nouveaux Réalistes. Léger himself had used that term in his day, and it well suits those who used real everyday objects to reinvent art.

*Arman, Klein, Raymond Hains, Martial Raysse et César.

Jusqu’au 18 novembre

Biot, 255 chemin du Val-de-Pôme

Tél. 04 93 53 87 20

Musée International de la Parfumerie, Grasse

Sensory worlds. It was Wagner who first created a ‘total work of art’, the idea being to bring all the arts into a single creative work. This exhibition presents olfactory recreations of works that have marked the history of the arts, from composer Alexandre Scriabin to some iconic contemporary artists. Three young visual artists, Tiphaine Calmettes, Camille Correas, and Florian Mermin, invite us to explore their singular, multisensory worlds. A different way of approaching art, not just with the eyes.

Jusqu’au 12 janvier. 

Grasse, 2 boulevard du Jeu de ballon. Tél. 04 97 05 58 11

Musée Bonnard, Le Cannet

Bonnard, the poetry of an ordinary object. Scenes from mythology, vast landscapes and portraits of important people may impress, but there is also something wonderful in discovering the beauty of the things around us. Our everyday world. Bonnard, focusing on light and shimmering colour, is a master of that approach. With this exhibition, we meet the vase (or jug) decorated with cherries and cherry leaves which so fascinated the artist that it features is some thirty of his paintings executed between 1910 and 1930.

Jusqu’au 3 novembre

Le Cannet, 16 boulevard Sadi Carnot

Tél. 04 93 94 06 06