Part documentary, part fiction Welcome to Club R-26 series turns the spotlight on this Parisian party venue, founded in the 1930s by the couple Madeleine and Robert Perrier, and frequented by numerous artists whose works are now on display in the museum.
Montmartre, 1930. Madeleine and Robert Perrier are lovers of jazz, fashion and song. Together they create Club R-26, an artistic salon that brings together famous and unknown artists. A Parisian social network until 2012, the club counted Le Corbusier, Django Reinhardt and Joséphine Baker among its regulars. But also Sonia Delaunay, Georges Vantongerloo, Suzanne Valadon and Georges Mathieu, four artists whose works are now on display at the Musée d'arts de Nantes.
Under the camera of Gaëtan Chataigner, four episodes of a web series were filmed at the museum in April 2021. The museum teamed up with artists from the Nantes-based Alambic art collective to imagine and co-produce this web series. In each issue, Élodie Evezard, in charge of mediation and public relations at the museum, deciphers a work by an artist who frequented the famous club. All the works come from the collections in Nantes, but some are previously unpublished and have been specially "taken out" of storage.
Actor Norman Barreau-Gély narrates them in the intimacy of the Club R-26, at the heart of their era, offering a sensitive insight into the giants of modern art. Each episode is also punctuated by a song written by de Madeleine and Robert Perrier and performed in the museum halls by Clair and Philippe Eveno. A true resonance with this period when the partitions between the worlds of art and music were abolished.
Norman Barreau-Gély, a member of the artistic collective Alambic, is behind the project. After finding numerous archives on the Perrier family and the R-26, he teamed up with choreographer David Rolland to tell the story of this club, painting a portrait of an era in the form of documentary theater. In March 2020, the Musée d'arts de Nantes will host the show in an adapted concert-conference format. Norman Barreau-Gély tells the amazing story of Club R-26, situates the artists in the context of the era and presents the original archives, while Clair and Philippe Eveno perform eight songs from the Perrier repertoire. A free and joyful moment at the heart of 20th-century art and music history, which the museum has decided to bring back to life here.
Episode 1: Suzanne Valadon
Episode 2: Georges Vantongerloo
Episode 3: Sonia Delaunay
Episode 4: Georges Mathieu
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.