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Lambert Collection in Avignon dans le Vaucluse

Musée
Musée d'Art provenant de collections privées
Musée de Peinture
Musée d'Art contemporain
Vaucluse

Lambert Collection in Avignon

    5 Rue Violette
    84000 Avignon
Collection Lambert en Avignon Façade du musée
collection lambert en avignon expo

Timeline

Temps modernes
Révolution/Empire
XIXe siècle
Époque contemporaine
1700
1800
1900
2000
1720-1751
Construction of the hotel of Caumont
juillet 2000
Opening of the Lambert Collection
2007
Polemic around Cy Twombly
2009-2011
Extension and donation project
avril 2011
Vandalism of Piss Christ
juillet 2015
Inauguration of extension
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui

Key figures

Yvon Lambert - Galerist and collector Founder of the collection, donor.
Jean-Baptiste Franque - Architect Designer of the hotel in Caumont.
François Franque - Architect Completed the hotel of Caumont.
Andres Serrano - Contemporary Artist Author of *Piss Christ*, vandalized work.
Cy Twombly - Contemporary Artist Web damaged in 2007.
Marie-Josée Roig - Mayor of Avignon (2009-2010) Involved in the extension project.

Origin and history

The Lambert collection is a collection of contemporary works of art brought together by the Parisian galleryist Yvon Lambert since the 1960s. Located in the Hôtel de Caumont in Avignon, it was opened to the public in July 2000 with 450 works exhibited for a period of twenty years. This museum is now one of the most important in France for contemporary art, thanks to major artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly or Nan Goldin, often absent from national collections.

The hotel of Caumont, located at 5 rue Violette, was built from 1720 by Jean-Baptiste Franque and completed by his son François after 1751. Acquired in 1878 by the General Council of Vaucluse, it successively housed a normal school of teachers and the national gendarmerie. Despite transformations, it remains an architectural masterpiece of the Franque, before becoming the frame of the Lambert collection.

In 2009, a project to extend to the nearby Montfaucon hotel was envisaged to exhibit works in reserve. After tensions with the municipality of Avignon in 2010, the project ended in 2011 with the donation of 450 works to the French state, provided that the museum space was enlarged. The works, entrusted to the architects Berger & Berger and Christiane Schmuckle-Mollard, allow the inauguration of the new building in July 2015.

The Lambert collection has organized major exhibitions, such as those dedicated to Cy Twombly in 2007 or Andres Serrano in 2011, the latter having provoked controversy after the vandalism of the work Piss Christ by Catholic activists. In 2007, another controversy broke out when an artist laid a kiss on a Twombly canvas, leading to a trial and an exhibition in response entitled I'm not kissing.

Today, the Lambert collection, with its 1,200 works, remains a must for contemporary art in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It illustrates the complicity between Yvon Lambert and the artists he supported, while offering an exceptional historical setting with the hotel of Caumont, jewel of the Avignon heritage.

External links

Conditions of visit

  • Conditions de visite : Ouvert toute l'année
  • Contact organisation : 04 90 16 56 20