July 7 – November 11, 2012
After celebrating its tenth anniversary, the Lambert Collection is entering a new phase.
During the President of the Republic’s official visit to the museum on 18 November 2011, Yvon Lambert confirmed he would donate his collection to the State for permanent conservation in Avignon.
Since this date, Avignon city council and the Culture Ministry have committed the finance necessary to expand the museum to the neighbouring Hôtel de Montfaucon, which would effectively double its exhibition space.
The donation will officially become public this summer and is set to become the largest benefaction to public collections in over a century. France’s national heritage will thus benefit from this complete historical collection, built up over 50 years and comprising of 600 works valued by Christie’s at nearly 100 million euros.
To celebrate the event, the museum will present the masterpieces of the Lambert Collection throughout the summer. The public can thus discover or rediscover the great names of Yvon Lambert’s unique collection, conserved in Avignon, but rarely presented within the Hôtel de Caumont rooms. Yvon Lambert has amassed the collection representing his tastes, aspirations and passions since the sixties. The dealer-collector rejected academicism and soon realised that the world’s creative centre had shifted from the Paris of the Glory Years to a triumphant America. In avant-garde style, he imported from the U.S. the Minimalist, Conceptual, and Land art works that form the basis of the collection. In the eighties, Lambert turned towards a new form of painting that was more figurative; in the nineties, photography caught his eye. Since the nineties, video art, installations and painting have formed the backbone of his acquisitions, enhancing the collection with the work of young up-and-coming creators.
The collection is now formed of very coherent series from each artist, to the extent that, for some, Avignon is the only place in France where so many masterpieces can be admired. This was the case for Cy Twombly, whose “Blooming” exhibition in summer 2007 introduced the public to over 30 of his works. This was also the case for: Robert Ryman, at least 10 of whose canvases have been exhibited; Andres Serrano, who offered the museum 120 photographs in 2006; Sol LeWitt, offering more than 35 sculptures, paper works and wall drawings; and Nan Goldin, with 70 photographs. Others in this list include Donald Judd, Brice Marden, Daniel Buren, Gordon Matta-Clark, Anselm Kiefer, Miquel Barceló, Julian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Barbara Kruger, Douglas Gordon, Bertrand Lavier, Loris Gréaud, Vincent Ganivet, Zilvinas Kempinas, and many more besides.
The artists
Carlos Amorales, Miquel Barceló, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Christian Boltanski, Daniel Buren, André Cadere, Vincent Ganivet, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Holzer, Roni Horn, Zilvinas Kempinas, Anselm Kiefer, Barbara Kruger, Bertrand Lavier, Claude Lévêque, Allan Mac Collum, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden, Vik Muniz, Diogo Pimentao, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Andres Serrano, Niele Toroni, Salla Tÿkka, Cy Twombly, Lawrence Weiner
Photo : Andres Serrano / © Courtesy Andres Serrano and Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/ Brussels / Cnap