Louise Abbema
Amaury Duval
David d'Angers
Miquel Barcelo'
Jean-Baptiste de Bay
Pierre Bismuth
Jacques-emile Blanche
Slater Bradley
Brassai
Candice Breitz
Jean-Jacques Caffieri
Etienne Carjat
Emile-Auguste Carolus Duran
Georges Clairin
Chuck Close
Jean-Francois Colson
Charles-Antoine Coypel
Honore Daumier
Eugene Delacroix
Achille Deveria
Francisque Duret
Alexandre Falguiere
Robert Fleury
Flore-David
Jules Franceschi
Jakob Gautel
Edmond Geffroy
Baron Gerard
Theodore Gericault
Jean-Leon Gerome
Christoph Girardet
Matthias Muller
Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson
Douglas Gordon
Joseph Granie
Eugene Grasset
Roni Horn
Jonathan Horowitz
Michel Journiac
Anne Kessler
Joey Kotting
Barbara Kruger
Adelaide Labille-Guillard
Anthelme-Francois Lagrenee
Rene Lalique
Nicolas de Largilliere
Mathieu Laurette
Bertrand Lavier
Hippolyte Lecomte
Simon-Bernard Lenoir
Zoe Leonard
Therese Leprat
Eva Mattes
Franco Mattes
William Maw Egley
Darmon
Paul McCarthy
Adam McEwen
Melandri
Duane Michals
Nicolas Mignard
Yasumasa Morimura
Alfons Mucha
Amelie Munier-Romilly
Vik Muniz
Nadar
Frederique O'Connell
Augustin Pajou
Lucien Pallez
Seb Patane
Yan Pei-Ming
Adam Pendleton
Elisabeth Peyton
Roger Pic
Pablo Picasso
Pierre et Gilles
Jean-Baptiste Poncet
Pieter Janz Quast
Auguste Renoir
Joseph-Nicolas
Robert-Fleury
Adele Romance-Romany
Mimmo Rotella
Antonio Saura
Andres Serrano
Cindy Sherman
John Stezaker
Studio Harcourt
Catherine Sullivan
Vibeke Tandberg
Sam Taylor-Wood
Gabriel J. Thomas
Pierre-Antoine Vafflard
Kees Van Dongen
Carle Van Loo
Agnes Varda
Francesco Vezzoli
Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun
Andy Warhol
Eric Mezil
The Paradox of the actor. On wiev more than 600 artworks spanning 4 centuries of theatrical creation. The point of departure for this exhibition is anchored in Roni Horn's series of photographs. The attics of the museum will be transformed into the backstage of theatrical history and many masterpieces are associated: from Delacroix to Van Dongen, from David to d'Angers to Renoir, from Gericault to Daumier, from Brassai to Warhol... Two large rooms in the museum will be devoted to a handsome Paso Doble between Miquel Barcelo' and Pablo Picasso.
The Paradox of the actor
Curator Eric Mezil,
Director, Collection Lambert en Avignon
In resonance with the sixtieth Avignon Theatre Festival, the Collection Lambert en Avignon
proposes a summer exhibition on the portrait and the image of the actor entitled Figures of the
Player, theParadox of the Actor: title referring to Diderot's famous text on the art of theatrical
performance. The project both reinforces the festival's desire to firmly base its program in
contemporary art and confirms the Collection Lambert's desire to mix in the universe of the theatre.
In keeping with other Collection Lambert exhibitions of an historical dimension such as
Artists' Collections (Summer 2001), Figures of the Player, theParadox of the Actor is composed of
more than 600 artworks spanning four centuries of theatrical creation. This historical
mise en abime is at the core of the exhibition which, without wishing to be either exhaustive nor
chronological, will reveal the evolution of representations of the actor, their acting, postures, stage
costumes but also their social role - from courtesan to prince's closest advisor, from admiration to
recognition, from unanimous exemplarity to ironic caricature or finally to a model to follow for
generations.
This exhibition has been made possible thanks to two exceptional partnerships: the Library-
Museum of the Come'die-Francaise has permitted an ensemble of rare loans and prestigious
pages from theatrical history will be presented from the collections of the Department of Theatrical
Arts of the National Library of France.
The point of departure for this exhibition is anchored in Roni Horn's series of photographs, never
before seen in France, in which the American artist has requested Isabelle Huppert, during various
photographic shoots, to reincarnate her great roles - the actress using only her face and her
expressivity to evoke her roles in Medea, Madame Bovary or La Dentellie're, Orlando or The Pianist...
Mirroring these images will be a series of artworks featuring late eighteenth century Japanese
actors in which the great master printmakers succeed in capturing the poses of Kabuki theatre
actors by the requisite speed of their brushstroke and the technique of China ink on rice paper.
With ink and a brush for the Japanese artists or a camera for Horn, each time the intention to
capture the actor's expression and vitality presides, the essence of the actor incarnating a role,
the catharsis operating between the actor becoming the other and the spectator, often
dumbfounded, taken in a state of immediate identification.
If this type of aesthetic confrontation is at the very heart of the operation of the exhibition, the
great schools, trends or seminal periods in theatre: tragedy and comedy, classical or romantic,
expressionist or theatre of the absurd will also be addressed in an original way. Just as three
knocks of the baton signal the beginning of a performance, this show will begun as visitors arrive
outside the museum, the street decorated with giant flags hoisting up images of theatrical figures
from the 1950s to the present day. The first darkened room shall be dedicated to the seventh art.
Film extracts in which Preminger and Cassavettes, Truffaut and Lubitsch, Te'chine' and
Lars von Trier direct with emotion scenes of stage fright or coquetterie, fear or the consecration of
actors being filmed on stage, backstage or in their dressing room.
Next, in reference to the Nietzsche's founding text on the birth of Greek Tragedy, a long transitional
passage will retrace an almost mythological approach to the genesis of the art of the stage with
thirty nineteenth century photographs. Actors, some of them forgotten, will be offered up for the
viewer with ecstatic bodies, almost nude or draped with togas and wreaths of laurel leaves, their
transfigured faces, their pregnant pauses in reference to the sources of the first Greek texts:
Albert Lambert in Polyphe'me, Segond-Weber in Les Burgraves, Jeanne Samary in Amphitryon,
Julia Bartet in Andromaque, Demax in Ne'ron, Pierre Fresnay in Polynice...
The attics of the museum will be transformed into the backstage of theatrical history, with alcoves
dedicated to Comedia dell'arte, Molie're and his troupe, travelling theatre with Mime Debureau and
Fre'de'rick Lemaitre who both inspired Carne' and his Les Enfants du Paradis and again to the
creation of the Avignon Theatre Festival with Jean Vilar, Ge'rard Philippe and Maria Casare's. A
gallery filled with busts will recapture the noble and elegant image of salons, foyers and other
entrances to the theatre at the Come'die Francaise: Madeleine Roch, Coquelin L''Aine', Mademoiselle
Mars...
Other rooms in the exhibition will highlight regroupings of figures from a same period or particular
theatrical genre. Such a course will allow for the discovery or rediscovery of the great names of
French theatre, from Mlle Clairon to Mlle Georges, from Talma to Louis Jouvet, from Adrienne
Lecouvreur to Madeleine Renaud, from Mounet-Sully to Denis Podalyde's. The divine Sarah
Bernhardt will also be acknowledged with particular attention to the image of her eternal aura, with
a rare ensemble of paintings, sculptures, works on paper, personal objects, presents from the
greats - Clairin, Lalique, Mucha, photographs and sound archives, some of which are previously
unreleased.
Visual artists as just prestigious and celebrated will be represented along with these monstres
sacre's of the theatre. The Collection Lambert has never before had such an opportunity to
associate so many masterpieces within its exhibition spaces, from Delacroix to Van Dongen, from
David to d'Angers to Renoir, from Ge'ricault to Daumier, from Picasso to Saura, from Brassai to
Warhol...
The list of contemporary artists associating with the universe of today's actors who have become
stars - Isabelle Adjani and Catherine Deneuve or Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman, is just as
impressive with Candice Breitz's videos, or the photographs of Sam Taylor-Wood, Douglas Gordon
or Vik Muniz, or the installations of Catherine Sullivan or Francesco Vezzoli. All these contemporary
artworks will have the added merit, for the most part, of never having been previously exhibited in
France.
Like in the dramas of Antiquity, the last rooms in the museum shall be devoted to the chorus of
cries and the twilight of the idols, to fictive death on stage (Hamlet, Lady of the Camelias, La Voix
Humaine...) to actors' actual deaths, the communal grave for Molie're to the sublime funerary
representation of Talma ou Rachel, to the almost national mourning for Sarah Bernhardt, weaving
through history to the planetary turmoil of the tragic deaths of James Dean or Marilyn Monroe,
painted post-mortem by Yan Pei-Ming, allegorical figures of our time with their violent accidents
and unexplained suicides...
A richly illustrated catalogued will be published with E'ditions Gallimard under the direction of
E'ric Me'zil. Very diverse texts will explore historical or almost sociological perspectives with
important research made around essays written by actors themselves from Melle Clairon to Talma
from Sarah Bernhardt to Sasha Guitry, from Roger Blain to Denis Podalyde's. Joel Huthwohl, curator
of the Library-Museum of the Come'die Francaise, will address the history of the representation of
actors. Enzo Cormann will offer a very personal view of the man of the theatre.
Co-published with Editions Gallimard, 256 pp; 30 euros
Eric Mezil
THE ARTISTS
Louise Abbe'ma, Amaury Duval, David d'Angers, Miquel Barcelo', Jean-Baptiste de Bay, Pierre Bismuth,
Jacques-E'mile Blanche, Slater Bradley, Brassai, Candice Breitz, Jean-Jacques Caffieri, E'tienne
Carjat, E'mile-Auguste Carolus Duran, Georges Clairin, Chuck Close, Jean-Francois Colson, Charles-
Antoine Coypel, Honore' Daumier, Euge'ne Delacroix, Achille Deve'ria, Francisque Duret, Alexandre
Falguie're, Robert Fleury, Flore-David, Jules Franceschi, Jakob Gautel, Edmond Geffroy, Baron Ge'rard,
The'odore Ge'ricault, Jean-Le'on Ge'rome, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Muller, Anne-Louis Girodet-
Trioson, Douglas Gordon, Joseph Granie', Euge'ne Grasset, Roni Horn, Jonathan Horowitz, Michel
Journiac, Anne Kessler, Joey Kotting, Barbara Kruger, Ade'laide Labille-Guillard, Anthelme-Francois
Lagre'ne'e, Rene' Lalique, Nicolas de Largillie're, Mathieu Laurette, Bertrand Lavier, Hippolyte Lecomte,
Simon-Bernard Lenoir, Zoe Leonard, The're'se Leprat, Eva et Franco Mattes, William Maw Egley, Darmon
& Paul McCarthy, Adam McEwen, Me'landri, Duane Michals, Nicolas Mignard, Yasumasa Morimura,
Alfons Mucha, Ame'lie Munier-Romilly, Vik Muniz, Nadar, Fre'de'rique O'Connell, Augustin Pajou, Lucien
Pallez, Seb Patane, Yan Pei-Ming, Adam Pendleton, Elisabeth Peyton, Roger Pic, Pablo Picasso, Pierre
et Gilles, Jean-Baptiste Poncet, Pieter Janz Quast, Auguste Renoir, Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury,
Ade'le Romance-Romany, Mimmo Rotella, Antonio Saura, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, John
Stezaker, Studio Harcourt, Catherine Sullivan, Vibeke Tandberg, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gabriel J. Thomas,
Pierre-Antoine Vafflard, Kees Van Dongen, Carle Van Loo, Agne's Varda, Francesco Vezzoli, E'lizabeth
Vige'e-Lebrun, Andy Warhol.
Marcel Carne', John Casavettes, Arnaud Desplechin, Ernst Lubitsch, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ariane Mnouchkine, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jean Renoir, Andre' Te'chine', Francois Truffaut, Lars Von Trier
LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION
The Collection Lambert en Avignon would like to thank the Library-Museum of the Come'die-
Francaise and the Department of Theatrical Arts of the National Library of France for the loan of
artworks and objects of exceptional quality.
Exhibition will be present at the Collection Lambert, Hotel de Caumont, 5 Rue Violette and at the
Hotel Forbin de la Barben, 7 Place The'odore Aubanel, Avignon
---
SPANISH INFLUENZE
Miquel Barcelo' & Pablo Picasso
Curator: Eric Mezil, Director, Collection Lambert en Avignon
Josef Nadj, the 'artist associate' of this year's Avignon Theatre Festival, has proposed to create a
work with Miquel Barcelo'. This performance a' deux, of a painter and a choreographer will be
presented at the E'glise des Ce'lestins. The performance consists of revealing an artwork as it
comes into being, each night transforming an enormous virgin backdrop of fresh clay mounted on
a wall that will become, with the genius of Barcelo', a pictorial and sculptural surface reminiscent in
turn of Medieval bas-reliefs, the parietal walls of Lascaux and Chauvet, or even of the almost
shamanistic dances of Yves Klein's blue pigment coated models' evolving on a virgin surface, or
the corporal performance art of the 1950s, to the United States with Pollock and his famous
drippings or in France with Georges Mathieu and his combats in front of un-stretched canvases or
to Japan with the best artists of the Gutai group dancing, running on their artworks, trampling and
paddling in paint on the canvases placed directly on the ground, like Shirage or Murakami...
More than anyone, Miquel Barcelo' is an erudite artist, a singular figure in contemporary art,
existing outside fashion and current trends. Echoing the performance that will allow festival goers
to discover this polymorphous artwork, the Collection Lambert takes up the performance's title
Paso Doble in association with the festival. Barcelo' is a regular at the Collection Lambert, he
participated in the 2001 exhibition Artists' Collections, loaning artworks as varied as his own
portrait by Warhol, paintings by Cy Twombly, Iberian sculptures or even immense Piranesi
engravingsā¦ In addition, the Collection Lambert en Avignon possesses a rare ensemble of works
by the artist - the first works from 1980-84. It was Yvon Lambert who exhibited Barcelo''s work for the
first time, allowing the artist to be discovered by the rest of the world.
As a prologue to our exhibition created on the figures of the actor, two large rooms in the museum
will be devoted to a handsome Paso Doble between Miquel Barcelo' and Pablo Picasso. Beyond
common references to Spain, it seemed obvious to us to associate the two in relation to the
performance at the E'glise des Ce'lestins. In effect, the principal of the Avignon project strangely
takes up the procedures chosen by filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot in the famous Myste're
Picasso (The Mystery of Picasso). The master paints on sheets of glass filmed from the other side
in order that the spectator has the impression of participating in the process of creation. Just like
the performance in Avignon, Barcelo' had the marvellously simple and brilliant idea of using the
immense surface of clay earth to model, at every possible opportunity, the demons of his creative
practice: shoals of fishes, skulls, amphorae made of soft clay and corrida in which Josef Nadj is
the beast sacrificed by banderilles.
In these rooms the Collection Lambert will associate large-scale canvases by Miquel Barcelo' with
an ensemble of beautiful terracotta masks of a very Iberian primitivism alongside an almost
unknown series of works on paper by Pablo Picasso: magnificent wax crayon or ink drawings on
the theme of the theatre. The troubling black eyes in the works of Picasso - the eyes of Oedipus,
dramatic figure par excellence of Greek Tragedy who was so pleasing to the father of Modernity,
will appear as a leitmotif to the vanite's and other sacrificial symbols contained in the works of
Barcelo'.
A catalogue will regroup Miquel Barcelo'''s artworks presented at the Collection Lambert with those
from the E'glise des Ce'lestins, also documenting ceramic pieces and every stage of the project
L'heure espagnole created with Josef Nadj. Texts (well known to the artist) by Jean Clotte relating
to Paleolithic art and a text by writer Pierre Pe'ju, author of Rire de l'ogre (The Ogre's Laugh) will be
featured.
The catalogue will be co-published with Gallimard under the direction of E'ric Me'zil, director of the
Collection Lambert.
THE COLLECTION LAMBERT IN AVIGNON
The Collection Lambert was created in 2000 by Yvon Lambert, who wished to present his
collection to the public. With the view to making a future donation, these artworks have been
lent to the city of Avignon for 20 years - creating the Collection Lambert, contemporary art
museum. The Collection Lambert is supported by: Ministe're de la Culture et de la
Communication, Ville d'Avignon, Conseil ge'ne'ral, Conseil re'gional and private donors: Fondation
Cartier pour l'art contemporain and LVMH.
AN HISTORIC COLLECTION BEGINNING FROM THE 1960S
Yvon Lambert, art dealer, has assembled a contemporary art collection unique in France, a
testimony to his passionate engagement in the artistic avant-garde; movements such as
Minimal Art, Conceptual Art, Land Art from the 60s and 70s, painting from the 80s, photography
and video from the 90s.
His collection contains most coherent ensembles of works by artists: Carl Andre, Christian
Boltanski, Nan Goldin, Douglas Gordon, Anselm Kiefer, Brice Marden, Gordon Matta-Clark, Robert
Ryman, Andres Serrano, Cy Twombly.
ARTISTIC PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS
This collection reveals itself to be a most original and exemplary testimony to the intense
complicity, and ties that have been woven between dealer-collector and artist. The collection
also comes to life with the commission of specific artworks for the museum. The artists selected
may be long-time friends of the museum or new, upcoming artists and their projects enrich the
historic site of the museum. In this way many different readings of the history of art come
together with these dialogues and confrontations that weave new links between artworks and
ideas and liberate the viewer of all aesthetic conventions. This is very much the case with
artworks made by Christian Boltanski, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jenny Holzer, Koo Jeong-a, Bertrand
Lavier, Claude Le'veque, Sol LeWitt, Jonathan Monk, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, Giulio Paolini and Niele
Toroni...
Press contact:
Collection Lambert ev Avignon
5 rue Violette, 84000 Avignon
Pascal Guillermin
Collection Lambert en Avignon T. 33 (0)4 90165620. F. 33 (0)4 90165621 p.guillermin@collectionlambert.com
2E Bureau
18 Rue Portefoin, 75003 Paris
Sylvie Grumbach et Martial Hobeniche T. + 33 (0)1 42339318. F. + 33 (0)1 40264353 m.hobeniche@2e-bureau.com Sylvie Grumbach & Martial Hobeniche
COLLECTION LAMBERT EN AVIGNON Contemporary Art Museum
5, rue Violette 84000 Avignon
Museum open everyday 11am - 6pm, closed Mondays (September - June)
Open everyday in July and August 11am - 7pm
Entry : 5,5 euros
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Free for members of the 'Friends of the Collection Lambert en Avignon'
and students from the Avignon Art School
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