Friday February 24 was a mix of sun and cloud with a high of 15C. We headed out mid morning to the Boulangerie, fish stalls and then the Cours Sayela fruit and vegetable market. It's become a routine on the days we aren't taking day trips from Nice.
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| Busy market, comme habitude (Matisse's old apartment in the building at the end of the market street) |
We walked to the Tourism Office on the Promenade des Anglais to get some info about Antibes and then headed back to the apartment to drop our purchases and have a light lunch.
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| I don' t get tired of watching people sitting in the blue chairs looking at the Sea |
Our afternoon destination was the Musée d'Art Moderne et D'Art Contemporain (MAMAC) (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. The Museum opened on June 21, 1990. It is located near the Place Garibaldi. It was designed by two architects, Yves Bayard and Henri Vidal and is shaped as an arch.
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| Entrance to the Museum |
There were two temporary exhibits that we visited before heading to the permanent collections. The collections cover different art movements from the late 1950s until the present including the European New Realists, American Pop art, The School of Nice, Arte Povera, Supports and Surfaces, and American minimalism and colour field.
The first temporary exhibit we saw was entitled: Irene Kopelman: Modèles marins, Dessiner la régénération (Marine Models, Drawing Regeneration). For the last 20 years, Argentine artist Irene Kopelman (b. 1974) has been exploring the world's most exceptional ecosystems, seeking a greater understanding of the living world. After exploring glaciers, ice floes and tropical forests, she set her sights on the marine world.
In this exhibit, through a series of drawings, paintings, and ceramics, she studied two delicate marine invertebrates in laboratories in Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer during a research project initiated by MAMAC in 2018. She focused her work on Nematostella and Botryllus, two marine invertebrates known for their exceptional capacity for regeneration.
She did silkscreens on glass depicting both invertebrates, made porcelain Botryllus and produced a number of watercolours and acrylic paintings.
The first room was a journey into the world of plants.
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| Marie Menken (Brooklyn USA, 1909-1970), Glimpse of the garden (video 1957) |
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| Marinette Cueco (b. Argentat (France), 1934) Herbier 1995-2010 |
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| Maria Thereza Alves (b. São Paulo, 1961), Unrejected Wild Flora 2013-17) |
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| Chiara Camoni (b. Plaisance Italy, 1974) Grandi sorelle 2018-2022 |
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| Marinette Cueco |
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| Marie-Claire Missoula Manlanbien (b. Paris, France, 1990), Corps en cheminement, 2022 |
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Nona Inescu (b. Bucharest, Romania, 1991), Brugmansia, 2021--
interactions between humans, animals, plants and minerals |
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| Bianca Bondi (b. Johannesburg, South Africa, 1986), Scrying in astral ponds, 2022 |
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Laurence Aëgerter (b. Marseille, France, 1972), Al Ahmadi, Kuwait, 2015
Series: Healing Plants for Hurt Landscapes |
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| Gaza, Palestine, 2015, Healing Plants for Hurt Landscapes |
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| Andy Goldsworthly (b. Cheshire, United Kingdom, 1956), Foxgloves threaded into rushes (Scaur Glen, Dumfriesshire (Scotland), 1990 |
There was section of the exhibit called
Botany of Power. The commentary states that the "development of modern botany is closely linked, over the centuries, to the discovery of new territories and the process of colonization". The interlinked effects of current climate changes, wars and globalization are evoked in the works in this section.
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| Fatma Bucak (b. Alexandretta (Turkey), 1984, Damascus Rose, 2016-2022 |
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| Otobong Nkanga, (b. Kano, Nigeria, 1974), Kolanut Tales- Dismembered, 2016 |
It was a very interesting exhibit. An incredible amount of work went into assembling the exhibit and developing the concept.
Next we visited the Permanent Collections which are housed on three floors. Many great pieces, including some wonderful Raushenbergs and Robert Indianas as well as a number of works from French artists from the Movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
A pleasant surprise were two very large sections of the galleries devoted to the artists, Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) and Yves Klein (1928-1962). The year before her death in 2002, Niki de Saint Phalle donated many works to MAMAC, where she had spent almost a year in 1953. Yves Klein was born in Nice and MAMAC has a large collection of his works.
Niki de Saint Phalle was born on October 29, 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The Wall Street crash had an impact on the family business (her father was from a family of bankers) and they moved to the United States. She was educated in American schools but spent summers in France. She started with a series of Shooting paintings, which she ended in1963.
She left the US in the mid 1950s due to, among other things, McCarthyism and racism. She then created a series of "Nana's" "which ignore the law of anatomy, gravity and adopt unbridled and joyful postures." The "Nanas" were created from the end of 1964 when the influence of the American civil rights movement was strong. Niki was also one of the first to use art to raise awareness of AIDS. She was also a later member of the French Nouveau Réalistes.
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| Nana noire upside-down, 1965-66 - Niki chose to create "Nanas" with black or mixed skin. |
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| Dear Paul/Telephone 1994 |
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| Niki |
We then went into the rooms with the Yves Klein paintings and sculptures. Klein was a leading member of the French artistic movement Nouveau Réalisme founded in 1960 by art critic Pierre Restany. Klein was also a pioneer in the development of performance art. His parents were both painters. He first studied judo and became the first European to reach the rank of 4th degree black belt. He then turned to art, with a series of Monochromes. He began to paint only in blue and developed International Klein Blue.
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| Globe terrestre, 1957--- Klein declared that the whole world is blue... |
Klein also made what he called Anthropométries. These were paintings made without brushes, but with the human body. He called them his "living brushes". Sometimes audiences would watch him create these works.
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| Anthropométrie sans titre, 1961 and Pluie bleue, 1957 (pigment and resin on 12 wooden rods) |
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| Sculpture éponge sans titre, 1959 |
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| Yves Klein, Le rêve du feu (détail), c. 1960, Photo Harry Shunk and John Kender |
Klein was only 34 when he died of a heart attack. MAMAC had a wonderful collection of his work.
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| Views on the higher floors |
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| Huge lot beside the museum being developed |
There were many more wonderful pieces from the permanent collection.
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| Martial Raysse (b. Golfe-Juan, France, 1936), Nissa Bella, 1964-- study of his wife's face. He was a founding member of the Nouveau Réalistes. |
We then climbed to the outside terrace on the 5th floor. Fantastic views.
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| Tram #1 en route |
We had a coffee at Café Indien and then rested for a few hours before heading out to dinner at
La Maison de Marie for dinner. It had been recommended by our host.
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| There were a number of rooms in the restaurant. Ours quickly filled up. |
Alain had a three-course prix fixe dinner and I had a main course.
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| Alain started with a very good fish soup (with cheese and aioli) |
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| I had the daube niçoise served with ravioli "from La Maison Perrin" |
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| Alain had confit lamb shoulder with panisse fries |
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| Very filling |
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| Alain had homemade iced nougat with candied fruit for dessert |
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| Happy foodie! |
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Another of the rooms
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| Patio area (not used) next to room in picture above |
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| Looking from the street- the restaurant was the only business in the alley |
We walked back to the apartment. The ferris wheel was lit up as were the King and Queen of Carnaval and the beautiful buildings in Turin style.
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| Ferris wheel |
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| All lit up |
Another great day in Nice. We decided to head to Antibes on Saturday for a day trip instead of Cannes. Everyone we talked to in Nice thought Antibes was a better choice.
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