Press - The Maeght Foundation plunged into torpor

At a time of the triumph of private art foundations in France, has the first of them, the heiress of the Maeghts in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, fallen asleep? Since the departure in 2017 of its artistic director, Olivier Kaeppelin, the greatest mystery has hovered over its editorial line and its future.

She was 13 years ahead of Beaubourg. Eyeing American examples, the Aimé and Marguerite Maeght Foundation created “ instinctively and through love a universe where modern art finds its place ”, in the words of André Malraux, who inaugurated it in July 1964. The great names followed one another at its head, from Jean-Louis Prat (director from 1969 to 2004) to Olivier Kaeppelin (from 2011 to 2017), formerly of the Palais de Tokyo, and Michel Enrici (2006-2009), founder of the Pavillon Bosio in Monaco . It was the time of musical evenings in the company of John Cage, readings by Yves Bonnefoy, Claude Esteban or Henri Michaux, invitations extended to Paul Rebeyrolle, Germaine Richier, Fabrice Hyber or Erik Dietman.

But since the celebrations of its half-century, nothing has gone well. Internal wars have intensified since the departure of Yoyo Maeght, the granddaughter, from the board of directors in 2011. The foundation does not emerge unscathed. After the waltz of three directors in 10 years, including the short-lived Dominique Païni who stayed for eight months, the position has been vacant for two years. While administrative management still has some challenges to overcome. “ The absence of an artistic director is regrettable given the importance of the foundation's collection, its history and its prestige,” laments Olivier Kaeppelin. This does not correspond to the statutes, nor to the spirit of Aimé Maeght, in perpetual search for novelty and artists to show him the way .” Torn between art and money, poetry and family psychoanalysis, the foundation is looking for a new lease of life. “ After the departure of the previous director, the board of directors wanted to give itself time to reflect. For 18 months, under his leadership, the foundation has demonstrated great dynamism ,” the foundation explains laconically.

Existential atony

Everything is a matter of perspective. While Aimé Maeght preferred to speak of “ living art ” than “ modern art ”, the programming is more memorial than daring and contemporary. The foundation's 8th Miró exhibition has just ended, when another familiar name of the place, that of the Giacometti, is announced next fall. In the spring, it will be the turn of Jacques Monory to whom Jean-Louis Prat and Michel Enrici had already dedicated exhibitions, in 1977 and 2009 respectively. For each, independent curators are invited. But how can we move forward without a conductor? Attendance has fallen by 40% since 2010, according to the Côte d'Azur Regional Tourism Committee, but has recovered by 30% since 2018 according to the foundation, even though it is headless.

A delicate situation for a private structure without public subsidy, whose budget of 3 million euros relies 80% on ticketing. “ For budgetary reasons, the instruction is to concentrate on private lenders who can cover transport or more ,” explains one of the invited independent commissioners. This financial shortage is not new. The extension project commissioned from the Italian architect Silvio d'Ascia in 2006 and promised in 2014 was stopped due to lack of money. The building is still awaiting renovation work, particularly on its glazing to present more graphic arts. While waiting for a bright future, the foundation is multiplying turnkey exhibitions rented in China, Germany, Italy...

In this existential atony, the state supervision of this structure recognized as being of public utility, represented on the board of directors by Rue de Valois itself (an exception for a foundation), is discreet. Director of French museums until 2018, Marie-Christine Labourdette expressed her dissatisfaction in 2016 with the management deemed erratic of the foundation. On the menu of grievances: absence of updating of the statutes for 40 years, irregularity of the meeting of directors, disrespect of the composition of the board where the family is alone represented by three people including the president in office since 1982 (Adrien Maeght, sa half-sister Sylvie Balthazar-Eon, his daughter Isabelle Maeght), delay in filing for bankruptcy, or persistent vagueness in the sharing of certain works between the heir family and the foundation.

The State's restraint was loosened with the long vacancy of the management of France's museums, which only found a new head in February. However, the position of administrative and financial director was created in 2018 with Nicolas Gitton, a graduate of HEC. But the hemorrhaging of the board of directors has seen the successive departures of prestigious people such as former minister François Léotard. “ The salvation and renewal of the Maeght Foundation will necessarily involve a return to the ethics and commitment of its management bodies as they were installed by Aimé Maeght in 1964,” explains Yoyo Maeght, “by modernizing its functioning in view of today's art creation and dissemination networks and by restoring the spirit of innovation that animated my grandparents. » An advertisement for the recruitment of a director was finally published, before being closed on October 25. According to our information, no candidate stood out. Word to the wise…

The article on the Quotidien de l’Art website here

Le Quotidien de l’Art - November 21, 2019, by Sarah Hugounenq

Yoyo Maeght's book - The Maeght Saga here

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