VIDEO. The Saint-Étienne Museum of Modern Art reopens after a year and a half of work

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint-Étienne (MAMC), which houses the second largest French collection in this area after the Center Pompidou, reopened its doors this Saturday, November 9 after a year and a half of work.

The Saint-Etienne Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art has had a makeover. The work of Jean-Pierre Raynaud welcomes the public again, 20 years after disappearing, walled up by the former curator. A symbolic rediscovery.

Inaugurated in 1987 and designed by the architect Didier Guichard as a parallelepiped dressed in black ceramic (a nod to the historical link between the city and the coal industry), the MAMC of Saint-Étienne has just benefited from a first major renovation costing five million
euros.

At the MAMC, the new walking route is now “more intuitive for the visitor”summarizes Aurélie Voltz, the director of the museum since 2017. The works on display also benefit from better lighting installed in the rooms. “A new, more inclusive mediation offer for our audience, for children and families“, is now also offered there, she explains. “Art and sophrology, art and yoga, for example, can meet there.”

The building with 3,000 square meters of exhibition space is renowned for its collections of American minimalist art, Pop Art figures such as Andy Warhol, and representatives of the Supports/Surfaces artistic movement such as Claude Viallat or Louis Cane .

Among the 140 “non-format” works presented since Saturday is “Fladrine”, by the American artist Frank Stella, a big name on the New York art scene. This 1994 painting, bright colors and graphics inspired by the cubism of Pablo Picasso, measures more than 7.30 meters long. He is “one of the three achievements that the museum has” of this representative of the maximalist movement, indicates the director. The Saint-Etienne museum acquired it in 1998.

The MAMC collection also houses ancient art, as well as a large collection of design objects, particularly household art and industrial design, including creations by Charlotte Perriand and Le Corbusier.

In order to offer an exhibition space commensurate with the 23,000 pieces of a collection which is growing through acquisitions and donations, part of which travels around the world with “around 500 loans per year”, underlines Aurélie Voltz, a project to extend the museum is envisaged.