FLORENCE & GERTRUDE
ARTING AROUND SOUTH OF FRANCE
Our new book, hot off the press!
Artists Florence & Gertrude venture out from their studio, camera in hand, to visit some of their favourite art and history locations in Provence and the surrounding areas. If you like art spaces, Vincent van Gogh, Roman stuff, cats, book shops, gelato, French wine, dry humour and a touch of irreverence then why not join them, as they go Arting around the south of France - ARLES, SAINT REMY DE PROVENCE, GLANUM, LES BAUX DE PROVENCE, NIMES, AVIGNON, UZES, SAINT QUENTIN, PONT DU GARD, ANDUZE, MONTPELLIER, OPPEDE, ROUSSILLON, MENERBES, LACOSTE, AIX EN PROVENCE, CHATEAU LA COSTE.
Avignon's art museums
We visit Avignon quite often, it’s our sort of place, architectural beauty, lovely little independent shops, boutiques, galleries and wonderful art museums. You’ll find it easy to access with ample parking around the perimeter. We always park on l'ile de Piat island in the centre of the Rhone, from there it's a pleasant stroll into the centre with the added bonus of great views from the bridge across to Mont Ventoux.
Avignon’s art museums, the Calvert, the Angladon and Collection Lambert are all within a few minutes’ walk of each other, so very convenient if you’re planning an ‘art fest’ and visiting three in the same day, and not just because it’s raining.
The Musée Angleton – Collection Jacques Doucet, is the most attractive of museums housed in a beautiful 18th century building. It was conceived as a house style museum, in accordance with the wishes of its founders, the artists Jean Angladon (1906-1979) and Paulette Martin (1905-1988). Their collection of masterpieces, inherited from the fashion designer, Jacques Doucet (1853-1929), are displayed in a setting consistent with their quality. The ground floor is devoted to showing rare works by some of the greatest artists of the 19th and 20th centuries: Degas, Daumier, Vuillard, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Sisley, Manet, Redon, Picasso and Modigliani. The first floor preserves the privacy of a house interior through a series of themed rooms, ranging from the Renaissance to the 18th century. It's also home to the only work by Vincent Van Gogh on permanent display in Provence – the 1888 ‘Wagons de Chemin de Fer’. The Musee Calvet is best described as a fine art museum, with its paintings, sculptures and works of art dating from the 15th to the 20th century and all housed in another beautiful 18th century mansion. The Calvert is named after Avignon physician, Esprit Calvert (1728-1810) who bequeathed the city his collection of over 5000 works of art including ancient Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman pieces. The mansion setting means the gallery is relatively small compared to purpose-built galleries, but its high ceilings, marble floors and sweeping staircases add to the unique and somewhat whimsical nature of the displays. And best of all it’s “gratuite pour tous” – freemans!
Arty stuff aside Avignon has much of interest. The Saint Bénezet bridge is known throughout the world thanks to the famous song. Built from the 12th century, it was washed away several times by floods and finally abandoned in the 17th century. Then there’s the unmissable Palais des Papes, the residence of the sovereign pontiffs in the 14th century and the largest Gothic Palace in the world. And of course, the verdant exterior of Les Halles covered market, which one of these days we’ll actually arrive early enough to see inside!
Frank Gehry
As one of the world’s leading architects, Gehry has designed some of the world’s most striking arts and museum buildings such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Biomuseo in Panama City and Germany’s Marta Herford.
If the brief was to design a local landmark, then Frank Gehry was certainly up to the task. His 56-metre-high tower, clad with 11,000 irregular shaped stainless-steel panels, rises above a cylindrical glass ‘drum’ that pays homage to the Arles Amphitheatre built some two thousand years earlier. "Like the arena, the scale and clear geometry of the drum reflects the ancient Roman planning influences that set the foundation of Arles," said Gehry. “The drum is both transparent and porous, with walls that open to the surrounding industrial buildings turning it into the central hub of the campus. The building grows out of the centre of the drum and is oriented towards the historic centre of Arles”. The manner in which Van Gogh rendered the surrounding Les Alpilles hillside also influenced the development of the exterior cladding.
“I love the light in Arles and the wind… I liked the idea of capturing and reflecting the light in this region and this city. It is not a cold building … the metal has a softness about it, even inside.” Frank Gehry.
LUMA
Arles
Founded by Swiss art collector Maja Hoffman’s LUMA Foundation as a platform to express their ongoing artist commitments. LUMA Arles is described as “an experimental cultural centre that questions the relationship between art, culture, environment, education and research”. This creative campus, located in the Parc des Ateliers, is a place of both production and experimentation for artists and the public alike. It hosts exhibitions of major artists and works by leading figures in contemporary creation. You’ll love it!
CARRE D'ART NIMES
Designed by celebrated architect Lord Norman Foster it stands as a giant glass cuboid with perfectly pure lines highlighted by its transparency. A central atrium, recalling the inner courtyards of the houses of Nimes, is topped by a canopy through which light streams into the building. This art museum is unashamedly contemporary, opened in 1993 it concentrates on showing work produced since the 1960’s. There’s an excellent art bookshop and roof top restaurant with terrific views. We love it.
In the words of the architects - “The Carré d’Art is articulated as a nine-storey structure, half of which is cut into the ground, keeping the building’s profile low in sympathy with the scale of the surrounding buildings. At the heart of the plan is a glass-roofed atrium, with a cascading staircase, which references the courtyard vernacular of the region. This space exploits the transparency and lightness of modern materials to allow daylight to permeate all floors. The lower levels house archive storage and a cinema. Above are two library floors, with art galleries on the upper two levels. A reception space on the uppermost floor opens out to a shaded café terrace overlooking a new public square.
The creation of this urban space was an integral part of the project. Railings, hoardings and parked cars were banished and the space in front of the building was extended to create a pedestrianised place – a new social focus and an appropriate setting for the Maison Carrée. Lined with café tables and thronged with people, the square has reinvigorated the social and cultural life of Nimes. Together with these urban interventions, the Carré d'Art shows how a building project, backed by an enlightened political initiative, can provide a powerful catalyst for reinvigorating the social and physical fabric of a city”. Foster + Partners.
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Van Gogh Foundation
ARLES
The Foundation expresses its artistic vision thus – “Adopting a resolutely contemporary point of view towards an artist such as Vincent van Gogh, a central figure in 19th and 20th-century art, also means examining the unparalleled history of his reception. The latter alone would be sufficient to confirm that Van Gogh is an artistic figure still very much alive today. The goal of the Foundation is to provide a reference point for the life and work of Van Gogh, in the city in which he arrived at many of the defining images of his artistic career, and equally to invite contemporary artists to express their connection to the artist through their own creations.” So, there you have it.
Victor Vasarely Foundation
Aix en Provence
A visit to the Victor Vasarely Foundation is an altogether different art museum visitor experience. It’s not just the fact it’s primarily the work of a single artist, but the sheer size of the pieces on display. Vasarely, a French/Hungarian (1906 – 1997) is known as the father of the Op Art movement (Optical art). He created intricate, geometric abstractions using a variety of optical illusions, with surfaces that appear to bulge out from the canvas. The Foundation opened in 1976 to great acclaim but has suffered a few difficult periods since with issues due to lack of funding. When we last visited, we almost had the place to ourselves, which was a surreal experience but not best for the institution’s finances. I dare say It’s position on the fringes of the suburbs doesn’t help. We’re very pleased to hear in 2020 of its designation as officially a Musée de France, which should help safeguard its future.
Lacoste
SCAD and Pierre Cardin
We came across Lacoste by chance some years ago, when taking a short cut from Bonnieux to Menerbes and thought it was just another pretty hilltop hamlet. That was until we saw a sign for the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and said, “let’s check that out”. Our luck was certainly in that day, we met a charming SCAD student who gave us a personal tour of their facilities and explained the history behind it., we would have been pleased with just that. Fortunately, we took a stroll up through the village, whereupon we discovered Pierre Cardin’s chateau, Le Chateau du Marquis de Sade, it looked amazing from the outside but was closed to visitors. But, how lucky can you get in one day? As we admired the sculptures surrounding the property, we got chatting with the gardener, who upon realising we were artists, insisted we see the other works inside. So, in we went and had a close encounter with a pink elephant. ‘Non-artists’ will be pleased to hear it’s officially open to visitors during the summer months. The annual Festival created by Pierre Cardin is now in its 22nd season (2022) and takes place in the chateau’s quarries. It’s dedicated to theatre, dance and opera and promotes young singers at the start of their career.
Outsider art
Debate around the exact definition of ‘Outsider Art’ has been going on for decades, ever since awareness of the phenomenon began with the development of forms of creative expression that existed outside of accepted ‘fine art’ norms. In 1906 Dr Walter Morgenthaler, a psychiatrist at Bern Psychiatric Hospital, started to collect and photograph the paintings and drawings designed by his patients, for the purpose of medical teaching and analysis. In particular the work of Adolf Wolfli, a genius who produced thousands of pieces from his small cell in a Swiss asylum and became the subject of Morgenthaler’s 1921 book - A Mental Patient as Artist. Dr Hans Prinzhorn also collected works by psychiatric patients and his book, Artistry of the Mentally ill, published in 1922, became influential amongst surrealist and modern artists of the time. Paul Klee and Max Ernst shared this enthusiasm for the book which contained numerous colour plates featuring the works Prinzhorn collected from a psychiatric hospital in Heidelberg. It’s said Picasso and other surrealists were fascinated by these new works and some began their own collections.
An artist particularly affected by Prinzhorn’s book was French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985). Together with Andre Breton he formed the Compagnie de l’Art Brut in 1948 and collected works of extreme individuality and inventiveness by untrained artists with little concept of an art gallery. These works were in their ‘raw’ state, described as “low art” and being free from cultural and artistic influences. He built up a collection of 5000 works by 133 creators, works which bore no relation to developments in contemporary art and produced by those on the fringes of society. He donated his collection to the City of Lausanne in 1971 and The Collection de l'Art Brut opened to the public 1976. We visited in 2003, most of the work is fascinating, much is thought provoking, some is disturbing.
The term ‘Outsider Art" was introduced as the title of Roger Cardinal's 1972 book on Art Brut, an introduction of Dubuffet’s concept to the English-speaking world. It was instrumental in raising awareness of the subject and for inspiring a new generation of creators. Cardinal’s preference for the book title was to use the French term. He explained, “You’ve got art nouveau and art deco and now you’ve got art brut”. The publishers didn’t agree.
Raw Vision is the world's only international journal of Outsider Art, the art of “unknown geniuses” who are untrained, unschooled and uninfluenced by the art world. Over the years, they have featured hundreds of self-taught and visionary artists, many of whom were previously unknown.
Pictured above, Montpellier's very own outsider art museum - MUSÉE D'ART BRUT. It’s a thought-provoking collection.
Pont du Gard
An ancient work of art
The Pont du Gard aqueduct is a true masterpiece of ancient architecture and one of the world’s most beautiful Roman constructions. If you're in the area you really must find time to visit. So, let’s start with something for the anoraks like Gertrude. The monument was built halfway through the 1st century AD, being the principal construction of a 30-mile-long aqueduct that supplied water to Nimes, (formerly known as Nemausus) from natural springs at Fontaine d'Eure, just below Uzes. The Pont du Gard was built as a three-level structure standing some 50 metres high to allow water to flow across the River Gardon. It's constructed from soft, coarse yellow limestone, extracted from the nearby Estel quarry that borders the river and allowed transportation for the 600 metres to the construction site by boat. You can still make out the stonemason’s tool and coding marks on the blocks.
The sheer scale of construction is an incredible feat of Roman engineering and design skills, with the top level being almost 360 metres in length or, as Gertrude would say, the length of 30 London buses. During the Middle Ages the structure lost a great number of stones, on one side of the upper level twelve arches have disappeared. In 1746 a road bridge was added beside the lower level but these days, thankfully, it’s pedestrians only. If visiting, parking is available on both sides of the river (Rive Gauche et Rive Droite) there’s a modern visitor centre, cafe, exhibition and cinema presentation. On the opposite bank there’s an attractive open terrace area with the aptly named Les Terrasses restaurant beautifully sited beneath the plane trees.
Saint Quentin la Poterie
We're potty about Saint Quentin la Poterie, a lively old village just a few minutes from Uzes. And that's not just because we like the butcher, the baker, (no candlestick maker), the restaurant and almost everything else about the place. We also love the pots! Pottery activity here dates to the 12th century and excavations in the 1980s discovered kilns from the Middle Ages. Thanks to nearby refractory clay deposits, small pottery businesses flourished and at its peak almost 80 workshops were in production. Decline started with the development of kitchenware, such as aluminum pans, with the last firing of a traditional pottery kiln in 1926. Fortunately, the story didn’t end there. From around 1983 pottery workshops started up again, with ceramic artists coming from far and wide to make Saint Quentin their home. An annual Festival of Ceramic Arts followed along with a Museum of Mediterranean Pottery, housed in a 16th century oil mill. Today there’s around 25 workshops / galleries where ceramic artists make and sell their work.
The Ardeche and it's beautiful villages are just an hours scenic drive from Uzes.
Driving north from Uzes on the D979, via Barjac, brings you to Vallon Pont d'Arc, gateway to the Ardeche Gorges. It's a trip we make quite often, a nice drive on good roads it takes about an hour. In summer Vallon is a hub of outward bound activity when the population seems to increase ten fold. Canoeing on the River Ardeche is the name of the game in these parts and there's a whole line of canoe hire locations either side of the D290, the southern bypass road. It's really a great day out, bring a picnic and paddle gently down stream through crystal clear waters, the most wonderful scenery and just a few 'fairly' gentle rapids to keep you on your toes.
If you want to stay dry but still see the fantastic scenery take the D290 in the direction of Pont Saint Esprit. The road winds for about twenty five miles following the rim of the gorge for much of it's length. It's a good wide road with a number of organised parking locations with lookout points that having stunning views over the Ardeche Gorge and the river hundreds of feet below. Just outside of Vallon the D290 also passes the entrance to Grotte Chauvet 2, a tourist attraction opened in 2015 and the largest cave replica in the world. This stunning site is a re-creation of the 36,000 year-old Grotte Chauvet, home to the oldest figurative cave drawings in the world and a Unesco Heritage site. The replica cave took a team of scientists two and a half years to create and enables visitors from around the world to continue to see the frescos of painted animals without damaging the original cave. www.grottechauvet2ardeche.com
If you travel north from Vallon Pont d'Arc, after half an hour, the D579 brings you to Balazuc, a small medieval village classified among "The Most Beautiful Villages of France". On the lane down to the village there is a large car park on the left, with 'facilities,' from here it's a gentle stroll into the village centre. If you take the path rather than the road you'll pass the Ardeche Museum. Yes that's it, the building with the huge MUSEUM sign on the wall just in case you're not sure. Inside you'll "discover the geologic wonders of stones and fossils" going back 500 million years to the Jurassic marine wildlife in the depths of Ardèche. www.museum-ardeche.fr
The heart of the village of Balazuc overlooks the river and seems to be clinging to the rock face for support, it's a maze of winding alleys, stairs, ruins, stone ramps and arches with boutiques and galleries intertwined, including ceramic art at La Maison des Artisans. The best view of the village is looking back from across the other side of the bridge. Here, if you take the path above the river and head down stream it leads to Le Viel Audon, an abandoned hamlet being restored by international volunteers since the 1970's. They have a small cafe and shop selling their own produce, some chickens, goats, a few pigs and lots of love and happiness.
If returning to Uzes you'll take the road back towards Vallon Pont d'Arc but if you turn off at Ruoms you can make a fifteen minute detour to another one of our favourite places, the village of LeBeaume. There's good parking, a river beach, lovely square with cafe's, a few nice boutiques and beautiful views and walks along the river to some secluded locations, it's well worth the journey. Back on the main D579, just outside of Ruom you'll pass Neovinum, a vast indoor wine discovery centre with interactive exhibition, guided tours, wine tasting, shopping and air conditioning!
