The private museum of Mougins changes its editorial line

Christian Levett will give a new direction to his private museum, the Mougins Museum of Classical Art (MACM), by highlighting women artists. The museum which exhibits the personal collection of this Briton and former businessman closes its doors on August 31 to reopen in June 2024 under the name “Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins” (FAMM).

Over the past 28 years, Christian Levett has collected approximately 2,300 works of art, ranging from antiques to modern and contemporary art. His interest in antiques having diminished over the years, he has recently turned to works of the 20th and 21st centuries, particularly abstract and post-war works. Her interest in women artists was furthered by her reading of Mary Gabriel’s book Ninth Street Women (2017), which spotlighted female Abstract Expressionist artists such as Elaine de Kooning, Lee Krasner, and Helen Frankenthaler.

“Women artists have been consistently neglected throughout history, either due to lack of opportunity in society or for reasons more difficult to explain over the last 60-70 years”the collector explained to Larry’s List in 2022. “It became clear that if I purchased these works and kept them in a collection, we could create something of great importance and interest to the public. »

The future museum will only feature works from the Christian Levett collection by female artists, such as Joan Mitchell, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Elaine de Kooning, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Howardina Pindell, Joan Semmel, Nancy Graves, Cecily Brown, Carrie Mae Weems, Barbara Hepworth, Marlene Dumas, Alma Thomas, Leonor Fini, Franciszka Themerson, Sahara Longe and Elizabeth Columba.

The collector has loaned numerous works by 20th-century women artists for exhibitions including the Withechapel Gallery exhibition in London, “Action, gesture, painting: women artists and global abstraction 1940-1970”. Currently, this exhibition is on display at the Vincent van Gogh Foundation in Arles until October 22.

Inaugurated in 2011, the MACM was awarded the “Best new museum of the year” prize by the English magazine Apollo the same year.

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