The modern art collection offers a look at the first three quarters of the 20th century. The Surrealist experiments of Claude Cahun and Max Ernst, the bold colors of Sonia Delaunay, Raoul Dufy and Suzanne Valadon, the emergence of abstraction under the brush of Vassily Kandinsky, the gestures of Pierre Soulages and Judit Reigl, the geometric arrangements of Aurélie Nemours and François Morellet: artists freed themselves from the representation of reality and pushed back the boundaries of creation.
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The collection
Since the middle of the 19th century, the museum has been open to the creativity of its time. Thanks to the initiatives of its governing body and the activities of the Friends of the Museum association, the collection was enriched with works, then recent, by the founding artists of modernism, such as Raoul Dufy, Paul Signac and Maurice Denis.
This enterprising purchasing policy led to major donations. In 1922 and 1930, two paintings by Claude Monet, donated by the artist and later bequeathed by his friend Georges Clemenceau, joined the museum. In 1947, the purchase ofAlfred Manessier 's Salve Regina (1945) opened the collection to abstraction. This interest in non-figurative art, still new to public collections, encouraged numerous donations: between 1958 and 1989, almost 500 works were donated by Gildas Fardel, then by Anne Dehez, both collectors of abstract art.
The modern art collection continues to benefit from the generosity of donors attached to the museum. The Docteur et Madame Léon Crivain Endowment Fund donated two works in 2020(Man Ray) and 2022(Shirley Jaffe). In 2023, Jeannette and Jean Branchet donated 46 works by 42 artists(Georges Brisson, Aurélie Nemours, Michel Seuphor, Victor Vasarely...).
Thanks to these purchases, donations and deposits, considerable bodies of work have also been built up and continue to grow, notably around artists such as Vassily Kandinsky,Jean-Émile Laboureur, Pierre Roy, Claude Cahun, Camille Bryen and Jean Gorin.
The Musée d'arts has never ceased to acquire surrealist works (Max Ernst, painting in homage to André Breton by Hervé Télémaque), particularly by women artists who are still under-represented in museum collections (Meret Oppenheim, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, Jane Graverol).
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Hanging
Galleries devoted to modern art highlight the strengths of this collection. On the second floor around the Patio, Neo-Impressionist, Fauvist and Cubist landscapes(Raoul Dufy,Jean-Émile Laboureur, Albert Marquet) stand alongside reinterpreted figures by Sonia Delaunay, Kees Van Dongen, Suzanne Valadon, Tamara de Lempicka and Pablo Picasso.
Nantes was the birthplace of several key figures in Surrealism: Jacques Vaché (who met André Breton), Pierre Roy, Benjamin Péret and Claude Cahun. Visitors can also discover Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Toyen, André Masson, Wifredo Lam, Man Ray, Meret Oppenheim and Roberto Matta. Seeking to disalienate the gaze and reinvent artistic practice, the works of these artists are placed alongside those of Jean Dubuffet and Gaston Chaissac.
The development of abstraction in the 20thcentury is highlighted in two sections of the exhibition. Around a superb group of eleven works by Vassily Kandinsky dating from his time at the German Bauhaus school of art and design (1922-1933), works by Joaquín Torres-García, Auguste Herbin, Georges Vantongerloo and Carmelo Arden Quin demonstrate the wide variety of approaches to abstraction that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s.
The diversity of abstract expression after 1945 is also at the heart of the exhibition in the main gallery: lyrical and gestural abstractions(Maria-Helena Vieira da Silva, Camille Bryen, Pierre Soulages, Hans Hartung, Judit Reigl) confront geometric abstractions(Jean Gorin, Victor Vasarely, Jesus-Rafael Soto, Sonia Delaunay, François Morellet, Vera Molnar, Aurélie Nemours).
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Emblematic works
Emblematic works
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1907The transatlantic roll -
1919Adrienne the fisherwoman -
1922Schwarzer Raster (Black screen) -
1926Kizette in pink -
1930 - 1937Plastic construction n°97 Volume relationships in space -
circa 1936Object under glass globe -
1964How to make a square dance -
1967Syncopated rhythm, known as The Black Snake
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On video
Women artists : Claude Cahun
Video series on the museum's women artists.
March 2021
Welcome to Club R-26
Web series produced in 2021 about Club R-26, frequented by Sonia Delaunay, Georges Vantongerloo, Suzanne Valadon and Georges Mathieu, four artists whose works are now on display at the Musée d'arts de Nantes.
September 2021
Women artists : Sonia Delaunay
Video series on the museum's women artists.
March 2021
Women artists : Tamara de Lempicka
Video series on the museum's women artists.
March 2021
Women artists : Suzanne Valadon
Video series on the museum's women artists.
March 2021
Mini video tour : Pierre Roy
Video made during the museum's closure in 2021, as part of #Culturecheznous.
March 2021
Permanent collections
The collections of the Musée d'arts de Nantes have been built up over time, notably through the acquisition of works by living artists. Purchased on the art market, donated or bequeathed, the collections today comprise over 14,000 works in four categories: ancient art, 19th century, modern art and contemporary art.