Exposition Les Bâtisseurs de l'imaginaire / Builders of the imaginary

Theo Wiesen's woodwork in the new wing
picture courtesy of Richard Bennaars

Closed for a number of years because of the construction of a new wing, the museum of modern art in Villeneuve d'Ascq, northern France, has reopened in September 2010. The museum has been renamed into Lille Art Musée (Lille Art Museum, LaM).

The new wing will house the collection of art brut donated to the museum by the French association l'Aracine, a group of enthusiastic collectors of art brut, presided by the late Madeleine Lommel.

The first exposition of the re-opened museum is entitled Habiter poétiquement le monde (Poetically inhabiting the world) and the art brut department of the museum will contribute to this theme with an exposition entitled Les bâtisseurs de l'imaginaire (Builders of the imaginary).

This exposition will mainly draw on the works of succeeding generations of famous french photographers and writers, featuring respectively the 1950s, 60s and 70s, namely:

• Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) and Robert Giraud (1922-1997), chroniclers in pictures and texts of French life and culture, especially Paris in the 1950s, who also payed attention to the creators of art environments of their times;

• -Gilles Ehrmann (1928-2005), the French photographer, whose book published in 1962 Les inspirés et leur demeures (The inspired and their abodes) still is a collector's item. See my post of April 2013;

• Clovis Prévost (1940) and his wife Claude Prévost, photographers, film makers and writers, whom I wrote about in my post of april 27, 2010.

The exposition also has works by Jean Grard and Pierre Avezard

Lille Art Museum

Les bâtisseurs de l'imaginaire
Exposition 28/9/2010 - 30/01/2011
59650 Lille/Villeneuve d'Ascq, France