Musée du Niel
Housed in a renovated villa dating from 1962, the Musée du Niel enjoys an exceptional natural setting on the Giens peninsula. Overlooking Niel harbour, it offers 300 m² of exhibition space devoted to painting from the second half of the 20th century. Each season, the museum presents a new thematic exhibition highlighting particularly innovative movements that continue to inform contemporary art today.
Housed in a renovated villa dating from 1962, the Musée du Niel enjoys an exceptional natural setting on the Giens peninsula. Overlooking Niel harbour, it offers 300 m² of exhibition space devoted to painting from the second half of the 20th century. Each season, the museum presents a new thematic exhibition highlighting particularly innovative movements that continue to inform contemporary art today.
Programme
Abstraction is a colour
This exhibition highlights the relationship that may have existed between colour and abstraction in the second half of the 20th century. Colour struggled to make its mark in post-war abstract art, which was largely resistant to the use of bright hues.
Despite this resistance, colour asserts itself through geometry in the work of Jean Dewasne, through lyrical intensity in that of Georges Mathieu, Gérard Schneider, Serge Poliakoff, Hans Hartung and, today, Fabienne Verdier, or becomes the heart of the work in Simon Hantaï’s paintings. Across the Atlantic, Shirley Jaffe, Sam Francis, Kimber Smith and James Bishop embrace Matisse’s legacy and reinvent abstract painting by placing colour centre stage. These approaches give rise to a sensation, a feeling, even a language: ‘colour abstraction’.
Video : Antoine Villeneuve, the exhibition’s curator, discusses its origins.
Access
Musée du Niel
6 route du Port du Niel, Giens, 83400 Hyères
04 94 91 74 22
f.denis@museeduniel.com
www.museeduniel.com
Open from May to November, daily (except Tuesdays), 11am to 7pm.
Access by car to the port of Niel is very limited during the high season. It is best to go there on foot or by bicycle from the center of the village of Giens. A free shuttle bus runs from the village parking lot to the port du Niel with a stop in the center of Giens.
Locate other art venues in the vicinity on the map.
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PLACES TO DISCOVER
• The botanical garden at Château Noir, 333, Chemin du Casteou Negre, La Madrague
• Coastal paths from the Port du Niel to the Tour Fondue (4km) or to the Darboussières beach (1.7km)
• Hire of boats, kayaks and paddles at the Port du Niel: XL Yachting, La petite flottille
• Scuba diving: La fée plongée
A free mini-train runs from Almanarre beach to the village of Giens along the beaches of the Route du Sel (in operation from 1 July to 31 August).
PLACES TO EAT
• Le Mérou du Niel : the chef reimagines Mediterranean cuisine, set against a breathtaking view over the port of Niel and the islands of Port-Cros National Park.
PLACES TO STAY
• Le Provençal*** : an institution of the Giens Peninsula: sea view, legendary seawater pool, friendly welcome.
• Lido Beach : hotel located in edge of beach with sight on the roadstead of Hyères.
• Le Lodge des Îles d'Or : on the Giens peninsula, a charming hotel with eco-lodge-style rooms.
• Lilou : Resurrecting an old hotel dating back to 1890, Lilou revives the tradition of grand hotels, artfully wrapped and perfumed on every floor with fig tree essences.
And food and drink on the museum terraces, of course!
