aixcentric

Flowerworks – that’s the theme for 10 museums and galleries across Nice from now until autumn.

The Musée Massena has ‘Nice Queen of Flowers’ which looks at how flowers have provided motifs for local architecture and the decorative arts. The painters loved them too – Dufy (currently on show in Aix’s Hotel Caumont) settled in Nice and in 1911 married a Nice milliner whom he painted in a floral dress, and followed up with the exuberant floral compositions you may have seen in Aix.  The expo spotlights too the traditional industry of horticulture which has contributed so much to the local economy.  Not forgetting the annual Battle of the Flowers which started back in 1876.  Terrific poster on the left. (see merchandising details below).

Meanwhile it’s Hockney and Matisse on show at the Musée Matisse up on the hillside at Cimiez, overlooking the town.

What a treat that promises to be.

The museum explains, “Never reduced to a simple juxtaposition, the display creates surprising echoes which show what the artists’ two worlds have in common, particularly a sensual continuity between the studio space and its objects – the mental space of creation – and the outside-landscape, in Nice, Tahiti or Los Angeles. The French Riviera coincides with California through several themes: the swimming-pool, the window and lush gardens. 

Yes, another terrific poster.

The Musée des Beaux Arts Jules Cheret is drawing on its collection to illustrate how artists weave floral symbols into their work to communicate messages which will resonate with the attentive onlooker.

Works by Dufy can also  be seen.

Raoul Dufy, Composition aux chrysanthèmes sur fond noir (detail),

Full details of all the shows are here:  https://biennalearts2022.nice.fr/en/exhibitions/