Picasso Museum Antibes

A visit to Antibes usually affords me the luxury of a walk through the old town to Chateau Grimaldi, the home of the Musée Picasso. It is a beautiful building, sufficiently small enough to allow for a visit in less than half a day, sufficiently large enough to be satisfied with that visit.

I have been to the museum often enough to know whose work in the permanent collection I want to make a beeline for. The first floor rooms contain the work of husband and wife artists Hans Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman. I pay my respects to Hartung's abstractions, but it is Bergman's work that I muse over. I love her use of gold and other metal leaf in her works.

Before having a detailed look at the current exhibition of Picasso photographs by Irish photographer Edward Quinn (a quick google search will provide plenty of images), I visit my ultimate favourite painting in the museum. I have featured Nicolas de Stael's Le Concert in a previous blog, but it is always worth looking at again. Unlike de Stael's other large painting in the museum, Le Concert is not a heavily impastoed painting and I actually came across a reference to it being unfinished. It may have been his last large painting and I think it is gorgeous. I love it.

On the opposite wall to Le Concert, was a smaller de Stael painting that I had not taken particular note of in previous years. The painting is of Fort Carré and as I passed de Stael's former residence on the coast on my way to the museum, I know it is a view from his Antibes home. I have never seen the fort on a grey day, so I have the feeling it was painted in winter. (Though my first visit to Antibes many years ago was at the end of December and it was quite sunny and warm!)

On the outdoor terrace overlooking the Mediterranean a number of large sculptures are installed. I particularly love the bronze La Grande Spirale by Germaine Richier. There are a number of Richier's familiar figure sculptures on the wall of the terrace, but it is this piece, reminiscent of a broken seashell that attracts me.

Nicolas de Stael - Picasso Museum, Antibes

 I was in Antibes last week enjoying the company, hot weather and warm water of the beautful blue Mediterranean! I also had the chance to enjoy a visit to the gorgeous Picasso Museum at the Chateau Grimaldi. This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nicolas de Stael (born Jan 5 1914) whose work is well represented at the Picasso Museum. To mark the anniversary, there was a special exhibition "The Nude Figure, 1951-1955" which included work borrowed from other collections as well as works in the museum's own collection. This is a photo of de Stael in his studio, easily found with a google search. I especially love photos of artists in their studios!

This painting, "Portrait of Anne" was in the large exhibition entrance room (the one that contains the huge musical painting from the permanent collection - I posted a picture of it after last year's visit). De Stael had a daughter named Anne, but I do not know if this is a painting of her.

The second room of the exhibition contained a lot of large, minimal line drawings, ink on paper which I enjoyed looking at.

There was a smaller room with medium size charcoal drawings and line drawings.

I love the broad strokes of charcoal defining the figure by it's shadow only.

 "Reclining Nude, Blue" is in the permanent collection and usually on display whenever I am at the Picasso Museum. It is always a pleasure to see.

I wished that the catalogue to the exhibition had an English translation as there were a lot of images reproduced. Unfortunately only the introduction had been translated and flipping through it I could see that there was a fair amount of text!

Picasso Museum Antibes - Nicolas de Stael

While in Antibes recently, I returned again to the Picasso Museum in the Chateau Grimaldi. I think this is one of my favourite art galleries in the world: it is neither too big or too small; it is a beautiful building housing beautiful work; it has a sculpture terrace overlooking the Mediterranean; it is in the heart of old Antibes. I would say it is the heart of old Antibes!

This year there was an exhibition of recent acquisitions and an exhibition to complement the large Nicolas de Stael painting "Le Concert" which permanently occupies a wall in the gallery. I know I posted this picture a year ago, but I love it, so here it is again:

This gallery view gives an idea of the scale:

Nicolas de Stael was born in St. Petersburg in 1914 and died in Paris, a French citizen, in 1955. I like this photograph of him in his studio.

I remember seeing this painting at the exhibition in Antibes and like it for it's abstract simplicity.

I enjoy the simplified forms and colour of de Stael paintings, the two below as other examples.

Picasso Museum in Antibes!

I just got back Wednesday night from a week in Antibes! It is happily becoming an annual visit. Last Friday I paid a visit to the beautiful Chateau Grimaldi which is home to the Picasso Museum in Antibes.

From below the ramparts one can see the four bronze figure sculptures by Germaine Richier.

This sculpture, Jupiter et Encelade, by Anne & Patrick Poirier is my favourite sculpture on permanent display. Last year when I was at the museum, the initial proposal drawing was displayed inside next to a window overlooking the sculpture, but  I couldn't find it this year. That is one of Germaine Richier's figures on the wall beside it.

There was a fabulous temporary exhibition by Jean Charles Blais on till June 9th so I just got in there in the nick of time to see it. This is one of his more recent silhouette paintings, but it was fabulous seeing a good overview of his oeuvre.

The museum is of course a setting for lots of Picasso's work! This is one of my favourites, La Chèvre, from 1946.

When I was at the museum last summer I fell in love with this Nicolas de Stael painting, Le Concert 1955. To my disappointment it was not on display this year though it is part of the permanent collection. However, I have the museum catalogue so I can fondly flip through pages.