Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The LaM - Lille Metropole Museum of Modern Art, Contemporary Art and Crude Art, formerly the Musée d'art moderne de Villeneuve-d'Ascq, was born from an exceptional donation. In 1979, Jean Masurel, heir to collector Roger Dutilleul, offered the Lille Urban Community more than 200 modern works (Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Léger). This gesture founded a museum designed in the 1970s as part of the new cities, inaugurated in 1983. The building, signed by architect Roland Simonet, integrates into a sculpture park and combines Mediterranean references with local tradition.

The collection was enriched in 1999 with the raw art fund of the association L-Aracin, becoming the largest in France in this field. Between 2006 and 2010, the museum was expanded by Manuelle Gautrand to accommodate these new works, from 7,600 m2 to 11,000 m2. It reopens under its current name, LaM, and now offers spaces dedicated to modern art (950 m2), contemporary (600 m2) and crude (1 100 m2), as well as a library of 40,000 books.

The LaM is distinguished by its sculpture park, initiated by the stone pieces of Eugene Dodeigne and Jean Roulland from the Masurel collection. It extends with monumental works such as Woman with his arms apart from Picasso (1962) or Between Fiction and Fact by Richard Deacon (1992), public commission. The museum, which was added to the additional inventory of historical monuments in 2000, has been managed since 2012 by a Public Institution for Cultural Cooperation (EPCC).

Temporary exhibitions and acquisition policy boost its attendance, rising from 80,000 annual visitors before 2006 to more than 150,000 after its reopening. Records are reached with retrospectives like that of Amedeo Modigliani in 2016 (194,000 visitors in 3 months). The LaM also plays an educational role, with workshops, an auditorium, and enhanced accessibility (free on the first Sunday of the month, devices for publics with disabilities).

Its history is marked by tensions during its construction, notably between architect Roland Simonnet, donor Jean Masurel and curator Pierre Chaigneau. These conflicts, resolved after the intervention of Jack Lang (Minister of Culture in 1981), led to changes in the original project, increasing its surface and cost (57.5 million francs instead of 35 million planned). The museum now benefits from the French museum label and an annual budget of approximately 6.5 million euros (2010), financed mainly by the Lille Metropolis.

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