The Jean Cocteau Museum/Séverin Wunderman Collection is a museum in
Menton
Menton (; , written ''Menton'' in classical norm or ''Mentan'' in Mistralian norm; it, Mentone ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera, close to the Italian border.
Me ...
, on the
French Riviera
The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...
, in the
Alpes-Maritimes
Alpes-Maritimes (; oc, Aups Maritims; it, Alpi Marittime, "Maritime Alps") is a department of France located in the country's southeast corner, on the Italian border and Mediterranean coast. Part of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, it ...
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
. Dedicated to the French artist
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...
, it incorporates the collection of American businessman and Cocteau enthusiast Séverin Wunderman.
Design
The decision to create the museum was made by the Menton city council in December 2003. An international competition was held by the council in 2007, with a winner for the design of the museum announced in June 2008.
The foundation stone was laid in December 2008, with the shell completed in January 2011.
The competition to design the museum building was won by French architect
Rudy Ricciotti
Rudy Ricciotti (born 22 August 1952) is a French architect and publisher.Lanie GoodmanGround Breaker ''The New York Times'', September 17, 2012 , an exponent of 'hedonist architecture' in the 1980s.
Ricciotti had previously designed the new Islamic art wing at
the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, among other cultural commissions.
[Gareth Harris (13 September 2012)]
Islamic art, covered
''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
''. Ricciotti's design was directly inspired by Cocteau's life and work, he has said of the museum's design that "Black and white no longer serve as colours here...they create an interplay of structural forces calling to mind both the artist’s works on paper and the poet’s personality, his zones of light and darkness, his enigmatic self-mythology fueled by contrasts."
The distinctive facade of the building has been variously described as "...like a fierce set of teeth or a string of alabaster forearms holding up the sky"
and "...like a spider, with jagged black pillars sprawling leg-like over the building".
Among the financial backers of the museum was
Pierre Bergé
Pierre Vital Georges Bergé (; 14 November 1930 – 8 September 2017) was a French industrialist and patron. He co-founded the fashion label Yves Saint Laurent, and was a longtime business partner (and onetime life partner) of its namesake des ...
, partner of the late
Yves Saint Laurent.
The museum took eight years to create, and is 29,000 sq ft in size.
Collection
Divided into seven parts, the museum contains almost 1000 graphic works by Cocteau, with the majority of the collection from collector Severin Wunderman.
Wunderman was 19 when he began collecting works by Cocteau. He had offered his collection to the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
, but later withdrew the offer, keeping his collection in his own Cocteau museum in Irvine, California, which he dedicated in 1985. He would frequently lend pieces to exhibitions and shows.
The scope of the collection spans early
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
graphic works with pencil, pastel, and watercolours on paper, to his films, with extensive clips from his "
Orphic Trilogy
''The Orphic Trilogy'' is a series of three French films written and directed by Jean Cocteau:
* ''The Blood of a Poet'', or ''Le sang d'un poète'', 1930
* ''Orpheus'', or ''Orphée'' (also the title used in the UK), 1950
* ''Testament of Orpheu ...
".
As well as Cocteau's work, the museum contains a collection of 240 original photographic prints by
Lucien Clergue
Lucien Clergue (; 14 August 1934 – 15 November 2014) was a French photographer. He was Chairman of the Academy of Fine Arts, Paris for 2013.
Biography
Lucien Clergue was born in Arles, France. At the age of 7 he began learning to play the ...
relating to the work of Cocteau, mostly taken during the filming of
Testament of Orpheus
''Testament of Orpheus'' (french: Le testament d'Orphée) is a 1960 black-and-white film with a few seconds of color film spliced in. Directed by and starring Jean Cocteau, who plays himself as an 18th-century poet, the film includes cameo appearan ...
.
The work Cocteau left upon his death in 1963 was catalogued by Annie Guédras, who identified at least three dozen fakes and copies among the pieces, some of which were destined for Wunderman's donation to the museum. The museum did eventually withdraw the works in question.
Guédras later felt that she was excluded from the Cocteau Committee that created the museum in the early 2000s because of her discovery.
A documentation centre for Cocteau's work is based at the museum, which contains books, magazines, journals, catalogues, and monographs on Cocteau.
An Office of Graphic Art at the museum conserves the collection when not on display.
The museum also features a cafe, shop, and spaces to hire.
Jean Cocteau and Menton
From 1950 onwards, Jean Cocteau was a frequent guest at
Francine Weisweiller's villa ''Santo Sospir'' in
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (; oc, Sant Joan de Cap Ferrat; Italian: ''San Giovanni Capo Ferrato'') is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2017, it had a population of 1,573 ...
on the
French Riviera
The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...
. In 1955, he was invited to attend the Classical Music Festival in nearby Menton. Delighted by the experience, he developed an attachment to the town and befriended the mayor, who suggested he decorate the town's wedding hall. In recognition of this work, which Cocteau accomplished in 1957 and 1958, Menton declared him an honorary citizen.
The Cocteau hall remains to this day a popular venue for weddings in the town.
In September 1957, the mayor of Menton also offered Cocteau to create a museum in the
Bastion
A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...
, a then disused 17th century fort situated near the harbor. Enthusiastic about the project, the artist worked on rearranging and decorating the building in his last years, as well as selecting the pieces he wanted exhibited there. The Bastion museum opened to the public in 1966, three years after Cocteau's death.
Temporary closure
On the night between 29 and 30 October 2018, a severe storm hit the Menton region. The museum, which is around 50 metres away from the shore, was hit by waves and its basement was flooded. The museum's management (Menton's city council) had decided to store a number of works in the basement. Those works were damaged by seawater, and the ground floor was also partially flooded. As a result of the storm, management decided to shut down the museum until further notice in order to allow for restoration of the damaged works at several locations throughout France. As of mid-April 2019, the museum was still closed "for repairs (travaux)" and Menton's tourist office informally stated that the museum might remain closed until autumn 2019, although no official expected date of reopening has ever been specified by Menton's municipality. In the meantime, a partial exhibition has been set up at the Bastion Museum. Menton's Bastion is a small fort built in 1619 overlooking the Mediterranean Sea; it withstood the October 2018 storm and subsequent floods.
As of August 2022, Menton's city council remains surprisingly silent on the possible reopening of the museum. The museum remains closed and looks completely abandoned with no sign of future evolution. In October 2022, Menton's municipality will mark the 4th anniversary of the museum's "temporary" closure.
See also
*
Bastion Museum, its sister museum in Menton created by Jean Cocteau, opened in 1966.
References
External links
Official site
{{Authority control
2011 establishments in France
Art museums established in 2011
Jean Cocteau
Museums in Alpes-Maritimes
Menton
Biographical museums in France
Modern art museums in France
Rudy Ricciotti buildings