A night at the Beaulieu museum

The annual "Nuit a la musee", a Europe wide opening of museums for evening or night visits will be celebrated at the Abbaye de Beaulieu for the second time.
The beautiful but austere Cistercian abbey set in the Seye valley between Verfeil and Parisot will display the monumental and colourful works of Liz West, the sixty years of creation of Muriel Sinclair and music and dance with various artists from the region, organised by Genevieve Foccroulle the pianist from St Michel de Vax.
The events will start at 20h (8pm) and last until midnight on Saturday 18th May.

New expo opens at Soulages

Pic: France 3 Occitanie

Some 118 works by Pierre Soulages, dating from 1946 to 2004, were exhibited for the first time together on 4th December in the Rodez gallery bearing his name. On paper these works were subjected to conservation work and re-framed using modern techniques. The exhibition will be on show until 31st March 2019, as well as the gallery's permanent displays. Thereafter they will be available for loans to other national and international galleries.
With the artist's trademark black and white composition the paintings demonstrate a variety of technique, yet continuity. Pierre Soulages will reach his 99th birthday on Christmas Eve and though said to be in good health he did not attend the vernissage.
The gallery will soon welcome its 800000th visitor.

Le Corbusier at Rodez

photo: E Cabanis/AFP

Best known for his modernist architecture and advocacy of the artistic use of concrete in his buildings, Le Corbusier was also a talented painter, drawer and sculptor.
The Musee Soulages in Rodez has dedicated 500m2 to an exhibition of 35 works from the architect's artistic output from now until 20th May 2018.
Tracing his thinking and development from the 1920s  to the 1960s  the exhibition has been curated by the architect Jacques Sbriglio, for whom Le Corbusier is the "go to" figure in modernism.
For details look at the gallery's website on http://musee-soulages.rodezagglo.fr/

"Nobel prize" for Soulages architects

Picture MaxPPP

The firm of Spanish architects who designed the Rodez Musee Soulages have been awarded with the prestigious Prix Pritzker, often called the Nobel prize for architecture.
Spanish firm RCR (Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta) will be presented with the prize, which includes a cheque for 100000 euros, at a ceremony in Japan in May.
Their work is across a range of public and private buildings, the Rodez gallery dedicated to local artist Pierre Soulages and his work being amongst the most striking.
The Musee is open every day except Monday. For information click here Musee Soulages

Ingres on the move

Montauban's Musee Ingres has closed its doors for three years of renovation work. For the first time in its history the museum will be completely emptied and some of its 30000 pieces of work will be exhibited elsewhere. The Ancien College in Montauban will show some of the painter's best known works, whilst some will be part of an exhibition at the Petit Palais in Paris. The winter of 2018 will see a selection on show in Milan but most of the collection will be kept in the Ingres's reserve storage outside the museum's walls.

Mme Gonse: the Montauban Mona Lisa

Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres was born in Montauban in 1780 and was a neo-classicist painter who considered himself to be an up-holder of classical values, but critics have pointed out that some of his "expressive distortions of form and space" made him a precursor of modern art. He is particularly known for his portraits.
The Musee will re-open towards the end of 2019 with 600m² of additional gallery space, plus digital enhancement.
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Pompidou Centre is forty

The Pompidou Centre's "refinery" look

On a visit to Paris 35 years ago one of the must see sites for us with the Louvre et al was the new and controversial Pompidou Centre. Named after the president who sanctioned it this new multi-discipline arts centre was designed partly by a British architect Richard Rogers and its controversial appearance quickly dubbed it "the gasworks" or "refinery", since much of its workings were visible on the outside.
Built on a huge car park in the Place Beaubourg the initial hostility has mellowed so that now it is as much a landmark as other Paris galleries. Over 300 million visitors have passed through its doors, to see more than 200 exhibitions of art, plus its library, cinemas and restaurants. Beaubourg is a living place, not simply a museum of the past. We remember our visit from all those years ago when it was new and different: today it is almost venerable - and different.
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Gifts from kings remembered

At this time of year Taglines generally has a story about "feves" -  not the beans, but the little figurines you find in the traditional "galettes des rois". These cakes are sold at Epiphany and the person who finds the feve may wear the golden crown which comes with the galette.
We were sorry to see "Minion" galettes, with an advertising crown in a patisserie the other day. It may appeal to the kids but gets away from the tradition. In Spain the festival of "reyes" (literally "kings") is often more important than Christmas itself.
One woman in the Tarn is si passionate about her feves that she has opened a museum with 5000 examples from the 30000  she has collected over the years.

Porcelain feves

Armelle Salvan opened her museum Le Reve du Passé in Ronel (Tarn) 10 years ago. We wonder if any Minion feves will make their way there.
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Surrealist St Cirq-Lapopie

The Lot commune is to buy the house where leading surrealist artist Andre Breton spent his summers from 1951 until his death 50 years ago in 1966. The 13th century house was a meeting place for many surrealist artists such as Max Ernst and Benjamin Peret, who came in the summer to pass time restring the building and working.

Breton house at St Cirq

The commune has agreed to pay 500000 euros for the building, partly by state funding. It will restore the house and open it as a museum. There is a "portes ouvertes" next weekend for a commemorative weekend of lectures, conferences and workshops.
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Pierre Soulages decorated

The Aveyronnais artist has been awarded with the Grand Croix of the Legion d'Honneur and was at the Elysee Palace yesterday to receive the decoration from President Hollande. Now aged 96 Soulages will be at the eponymous art gallery in Rodez on Friday for the opening of the Picasso exhibition.

Award winning muse Soulages in Rodez

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Cahors museum to close

The Musee Henri-Martin was opened in 1929 to house the works of the eponymous artist, housed in a former episcopal palace. But given the nature of the building and the number of reserve collections only a third of the space is used to show art works. The museum is to close for several years for a basement to attic remodelling, plus a new entrance more easily accessible from the town.
The work should cost about 6 million euros.

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Marilyn Monroe at Albi

The Musee Toulouse Lautrec will be holding an exposition of photographs taken shortly before the star's death in 1962. Over three days Vogue photographer Bert Stern took over 2000 shots in what he subsequently called "The Last Sitting". The museum has chosen 60 pictures, including two which Marilyn refused to allow Vogue to use. Plus 12 film posters showing the iconic star. The exhibition runs until 6th January 2016.
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23000 year old Venus

Photo : Patrick Kovarick/AFP

A  carving of a female figure was made about 23000 years ago in the Pyrenees and discovered in a cave in 1922. 15 cm tall and carved from mammoth ivory, the Venus de Lespugue has been an iconic exhibit in the national Musee de l'Homme in Paris (the museum's Mona Lisa some say). The museum has been closed since 2009 for renovation but re-opens  on 17th October. Other exhibits include skulls of Cro Magnon man and philosopher Descartes.
We watched the start of a drama series based on actual events called "The Resistance" on Channel 4 the other night (French with sub-titles) in which a group of resistants were based in the Musee de l'Homme as it had printing facilities for their eponymous news sheet. The Director connived with them to spread news about German and Petainist activities until he was relieved of his post.
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Changing a light bulb in Rodez

Claude Leveque: Le bleu de l'oeil

The installation by Claude Leveque at the Musee Soulages in Rodez has been closed indefinitely following vandalism of one of the neon tubes by a visitor on Friday. The rest of the museum is open as usual. The artist is not able to repair the exhibit as the specialist firm which makes the neon tubes is closed for "conges annuels".
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A fire at the museum

One of Paris's major museums, the Cite des Sciences, suffered a major blaze to some parts of the site which are being developed into a 110 million euro shopping mall. Built on the site of a former slaughterhouse the museum, a bit like London's Science Museum, attracts over 3 million visitors a year.
The blaze broke out during the night and involved some 120 firefighters, two of whom were injured.
No fire alarms were activated as the particular part was a building site.
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New gallery at Villeneuve de Rouergue

Celebrated press photographer Jean-Marie Périer is to inaugurate his gallery in Villeneuve on 13th July. To coincide with this he is publishing an album of 100 of his best known pictures from the 1960's when he photographed such personalities as the Beatles, Stones, Johnny Halliday, Francoise Hardy et al. He is also embarking on a tour of illustrated talks, using over 350 of his pictures. These are well received he thinks by the people who pinned his pictures on their student walls 50 years ago and want to know the stories behind them. At first the show will be at Anglet (Basque coast) then Paris, but may tour here next year. Meantime the new gallery in the area where he has made his home in recent years will have a display of M Périer's work on show from 13th July.
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Museums offer reduced price

The region's two major museum/galleries at Albi and Rodez are to join forces for promotional purposes and offer a reduced price ticket to cover both sites.
Currently it would cost 18 euros to visit both Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi and Soulages in Rodez, but a joint ticket will be 15 euros. Certainly both museums are worth a visit, as are their cities, and a saving of 3 euros each is useful.
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Museum of Immigration

Opened in 2007 this museum has not had any official inauguration - until yesterday. Built by Jacques Chirac the project has attracted almost as much "polemique" as immigration itself. Sarkozy pointedly refused to visit the site, but appointed a minister to deal with the question of identity who was booed out of the building in 2009. The building was briefly occupied by a group of "sans papiers"in 2010 and closed for renovation a couple of times in 2011. Finally Francois Hollande decided to make an official opening yesterday. The object of the museum is to celebrate the diversity that immigrants have brought to France over the centuries, but in the current anti-immigration climate good news of immigrants is not always welcome.
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Abu Dhabi finances Louvre et al

Some 300 works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci, Van Gogh, Monet and even Andy Warhol will be loaned to a new gallery opening in Abu Dhabi in December 2015. French museums such as the Louvre, Musee D'Orsay and Pompidou Centre are arranging for many famous paintings and sculptures to be sent to the Gulf in return for fees of many millions of euros which will be used to refurbish and up-date the lending institutions. Makes a change from selling arms to the Middle East and reminds us that not all Arab states are financing terrorists.
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Van Gogh at Arles

In the 1880's Vincent van Gogh discovered the wonderful light of Provence and installed himself in Arles. There he painted some of his most famous canvasses. Yet no trace of this momentous passage was to be found in Arles apart from an insignificant cul de sac named in his honour.
But now this has been rectified with the opening of a museum in a light modern building of 1000m2 in a scheme lead by a local group and with a large donation from a Swiss billionaire. Paintings have been loaned by leading museums and the collection opened to the public on 5th April.
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Three Museums in Toulouse who encourage us all to go and take the children

Le Musée des Abattoirs a lui aussi mis en place des ateliers et visites pour les enfants. 

Réservations: Musée Saint-Raymond (place Saint-Sernin). Tél. 05 61 22 31 44. www. SaintRaymond.toulouse.fr Musée des Augustins (21, rue de Metz). Tél. 05 61 22 21 82. www.augustins.org Musée des Abattoirs (76, allées Charles-de-Fitte). Tél. 05 62 48 58 00. www.lesabattoirs.org

Val says I was not sure about the Museum des Abattoirs but Malc assures me that the Abattoir is just the building.

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