Breathing space

The Fondation Maeght in Provence digs deep for a spectacular gallery expansion

- AMY SERAFIN

The Fondation Maeght, the first private art institution in France, turns 60 this summer, and is marking the occasion with an additional 500 sq m of exhibition space. Its founders, Marguerite and Aimé Maeght, were art dealers and publishers, as well as close friends of some of the great 20th-century artists. When their youngest son, Bernard, died of leukaemia, in 1953, this group of friends urged them to assuage their pain by creating a showcase for modern art. Inspired by American art foundations such as Barnes and Phillips, the couple hired Josep Lluís Sert, a Catalan architect who had designed Joan Miró’s studio, to build on a pine-covered hilltop in the Provençal village of Saint-Paul de Vence.

Sert envisioned the site as a medieval village, with ramparts, patios and a chapel. Using stone, glass, brick and cement, he designed the architecture in symbiosis with art and nature, drawing connections between the interior and the lush Mediterranean surroundings. Artists created site-specific works: a huge Alexander Calder stabile at the entrance, a Georges Braque fish pond, a Miró labyrinth, and a mosaic by Marc Chagall. Alberto Giacometti emphatically agreed with Sert that the surrounding trees should not be cut down, since a view of the horizon would disturb the verticality of his sculptures.