The Var region takes centre stage in this group exhibition, which explores the influence of this territory on artistic creation from the late 19th century to the present day. Its landscapes, light and colours have profoundly shaped the history of modern art, inspiring major figures such as Henri-Edmond Cross, Maximilien Luce, Henri Manguin, Louis Valtat, Charles Camoin and Théo Van Rysselberghe.

Through a dialogue between heritage and contemporary creation, the exhibition also brings together works by Bernard Buffet, Patrice Giorda, Bertrand de Miollis, Pascale Hemery, Serge Plagnol, Olivier Lavorel, Solange Triger, Marie Astoin, Jean-Pierre Maltèse and Caroline Vicquenault.

From the Var hinterland to the Mediterranean coastline, this journey highlights the enduring vitality of a creative impulse constantly renewed, at the crossroads of regional identity, art history and the singular trajectories of the artists who have found lasting inspiration here.

The exhibition retraces the journey of a free-spirited painter moving through a 19th century in full transformation. From foundational landscapes to springs and rivers, from the animal world to seascapes, and from portraits to biting caricatures, it reveals the full breadth of Courbet’s universe. It highlights an artist who bestowed dignity and monumentality upon workers, peasants and craftsmen. His involvement in the Paris Commune, the Vendôme Column affair and his subsequent exile in Switzerland underscore his political dimension. Through his direct, modern gaze on reality, Courbet overturned academic conventions and paved the way for artistic modernity.

In partnership with the Institut Gustave Courbet, Ornans.

Hopla Studio offers a joyful immersion where landscape becomes ritual and art celebrates the fertility of the living world. Vanina Langer and Magali Wehrung combine visual arts, textiles, ceramics, and culinary creations to reactivate a nourishing and protective bond with nature. Goddess-like sculptures, edible adornments, and large textile compositions weave a baroque universe where joy becomes a political act.

Amandine Guruceaga explores fire as destructive and regenerative through burned textiles, oxidized metals, and seed-like sculptures in dialogue with the Jardin des Méditerranées.

Amandine Guruceaga’s practice combines vital energy with ecological sensitivity: recycled materials, surgical interventions on matter, painterly gestures, and ancestral techniques coexist to create a universe where attention to the Earth and to living beings lies at the heart of the work.

The relationship between colour and abstraction, developed in the second half of the 20th century, is characterised by rivalry and conflict. Colour struggled to break through in the post-war aesthetics of abstract expression, which was typically resistant to bursts of colour. Dominant colour palettes were often dark, rarely venturing out of black, white and grey.

Nevertheless, some artists like Dewasne managed to impose a colourful vision by articulating expression through geometric configurations or by using the lyrical power inherent in colour like Mathieu, Schneider, Poliakoff, Hartung, and now, Fabienne Verdier or even like Hantaï who made colour itself the central aspect of his work. Across the Atlantic, artists vigorously claimed Matisse’s legacy by declaring colour as the essential component of their abstract work whilst reinventing painting. This is true of Shirley Jaffe and Sam Francis.

It is from this series of struggle that both vibrant and dark sensations, emotions and even dialogue arose which we could call “colour abstraction”.

Offrande d’Azur is an aerial, luminous installation where time, gravity and living matter enter into a silent dialogue, a delicate dance between mimosa and brass. Through a slow, meditative process, the artist shapes nature as a subject in its own right, revealing the beauty of the fragile and the transient.

Inspired by the Japanese concept of mono no aware (物の哀れ) — a sensitivity to impermanence and the transformation of all things — the exhibition invites contemplation of life in its fleeting nature. Each sculpture drifts gently through the air, evoking the relativity of time.

A major retrospective is dedicated to Bruno Barbey, highlighting his work during the second half of the 20th century with more than 200 prints.

Bruno Barbey holds a major place in the history of humanist photography and international photojournalism. A member of Magnum Photos since 1966, he travelled the world for more than fifty years, documenting the political, social, and cultural upheavals of his time. Very early on, he embraced colour as a language in its own right, subtly revealing the atmospheres, tensions, and poetry of reality.

To mark the bicentenary of photography, this major portrait exhibition presents more than 300 images from the photography heritage collection (MPP). From Nadar to nowadays, dozen of photographers are honored through historic portraits and previously unseen works. A journey retracing 200 years of evolution and diversity in the art of portraiture.