Collection Lambert
Founded in 2000 at the initiative of collector and gallerist Yvon Lambert, the Collection Lambert is a contemporary art centre with a public collection, created following the exceptional donation he made to the French State of a significant group of emblematic works spanning from the second half of the 20th century to the present day.
Enriched by works from internationally renowned artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Sol LeWitt, Anselm Kiefer, Nan Goldin and Christian Boltanski, the Collection Lambert stands out for the singularity of its history, the coherence of its holdings, the rigor of its programming, and its strong social commitment to broad public accessibility.
Located in the heart of Avignon, the Collection Lambert occupies two 18th-century townhouses made available by the City. These architecturally significant buildings were renovated by architect Rudy Ricciotti, together with architects Cyrille Berger and Laurent Berger.
Awarded the label “Centre d’art contemporain d’intérêt national” by the French Ministry of Culture in 2022, the Collection Lambert develops a deeply committed project at the crossroads of artistic creation and social innovation. It hosts a “second chance” class recognized by the French Ministry of Education for students who have dropped out of school, and runs an artistic programme within a nursing home, reaffirming its dedication to making culture accessible to all.
Founded in 2000 at the initiative of collector and gallerist Yvon Lambert, the Collection Lambert is a contemporary art centre with a public collection, created following the exceptional donation he made to the French State of a significant group of emblematic works spanning from the second half of the 20th century to the present day.
Enriched by works from internationally renowned artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Sol LeWitt, Anselm Kiefer, Nan Goldin and Christian Boltanski, the Collection Lambert stands out for the singularity of its history, the coherence of its holdings, the rigor of its programming, and its strong social commitment to broad public accessibility.
Located in the heart of Avignon, the Collection Lambert occupies two 18th-century townhouses made available by the City. These architecturally significant buildings were renovated by architect Rudy Ricciotti, together with architects Cyrille Berger and Laurent Berger.
Awarded the label “Centre d’art contemporain d’intérêt national” by the French Ministry of Culture in 2022, the Collection Lambert develops a deeply committed project at the crossroads of artistic creation and social innovation. It hosts a “second chance” class recognized by the French Ministry of Education for students who have dropped out of school, and runs an artistic programme within a nursing home, reaffirming its dedication to making culture accessible to all.
Programme
Le murmure des libres, Shilpa Gupta, Jumana Manna, Geumhyung Jeong
The Collection Lambert renews its longstanding commitment to women artists by turning its gaze toward the Near, Middle and Far East. The Avignon institution invites three major artists whose practices maintain particularly strong connections with these territories, placed at the heart of contemporary global upheavals.
Originally from Palestine (Jumana Manna), India (Shilpa Gupta), and South Korea (Geumhyung Jeong), these artists share practices shaped by a series of physical and sensorial displacements, offering
In broad Moonlight / Au grand jour, Agata Ingarden
En collaboration avec le centre d’art Triangle-Astérides (Marseille), la Collection Lambert invite l’artiste franco-polonaise pour une grande installation dans l’espace du “Grand L” de l’Hôtel de Montfaucon. Pensée en deux volets — In Broad Daylight in Marseille / In Broad Moonlight in Avignon — the exhibition will present works never before shown in France, as well as new productions conceived specifically for each art centre.
After training in New York and then in Paris, Agata Ingarden now divides her time between France and Greece. In Avignon, she will unfold the full diversity of her artistic research, drawing on post-apocalyptic, alchemical and poetic imagery to construct visual narratives in which the living and the technological merge.
Limbo, Gabriel Abrante
The American-Portuguese artist and filmmaker has been invited to the Collection Lambert for his first major exhibition in France. Internationally acclaimed for his films — including Diamantino, which won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 — he will showcase in Avignon the full breadth of his work, where video installations, films, paintings, and drawings intertwine, and where new technologies meet poetry with power and elegance.
Inside the Hôtel de Montfaucon, he will present a series of recent drawings, paintings, and videos, including the large-scale installation Bardo Loops, commissioned in 2024 by CAM Gulbenkian in Lisbon and unveiled for the reopening of its modern art center. Through this wide range of media, all mastered with disarming virtuosity, Gabriel Abrantes portrays a strange world in which algorithms and artificial intelligence appear to have taken control.
Access
The Lambert Collection
5, rue Violette - 84000 Avignon
+33 (0)4 90 16 56 23
collectionlambert.com
September to June: Wednesday to Friday 2-6pm, 11am -6pm on week-ends.
July: Every day from 11am to 6pm.
Closed on Monday 28 July.
August: Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 6pm.
Locate other art venues in the vicinity on the map.
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PLACES TO DISCOVER
• La navette fluviale : cross the Rhône for free from the Pont d'Avignon to the Île de la Barthelasse with the river shuttle. On the other bank, enjoy beautiful walks with views of the Pont d’Avignon, the ramparts or the Palais des Papes.
• Musée du Petit Palais : a siginificant art collection of Italian paintings, Avignonese sculptures and paintings from the Ecole d’Avignon.
• Musée Calvet : the Musée Calvet collections comprise archaeology, decorative arts, ethnography or fine arts.
• Maison Jean Vilar : an exhibition, archival and research centre, a place for encounters and entertainments in keeping with the popular theatre spirit.
• Utopia Manutention : an arthouse cinema at the foot of the Palais des Papes, with a restaurant.
• La Mémoire du Monde : a bookshop combining literature and art with a selection of small publishers and other rare texts.
• L’Eau Vive : this cosy bookshop for children holds creative workshops, readings, and book signings.
PLACES TO EAT
• Le Violette : inventive cuisine combining local products with flavours from elsewhere in the shade of century-old plane trees, far from the hustle and bustle of the city.
• Subito : simple recipes and fresh products for Italian cuisine lovers.
• Come a Roma : delicious Roman pizzas served with sunny tones.
• Bella Ciao : an utopian bakery in downtown Avignon offering different varieties of breads, sandwiches and pizzas.
PLACES TO STAY
• L’Hôtel de l’Europe : one of the most ancient hotel in France, in an ideal place where you can have a drink.
• Le Lieu : a charming guesthouse and a restaurant in a place full of history and stories, a Cordeliers convent in the 13th century and a bourgeois house in the 18th and 19th centuries.
