The Contemporary Art Square Museum Art Nîmes was opened in 1993 and owes its name to the Square House, the famous ancient building of the city, to which it faces.
Its construction was initiated ten years ago and entrusted to competition after a British architect Lord Norman Foster.
Featuring as its Parisian model, the Pompidou Center, a museum and a library, the Carré d'Art is as a large glass cuboid whose main characteristic is the transparency. It has a central atrium, which evokes the courtyards nîmoises houses, which is capped with a glass allowing light to penetrate widely in the building. It has nine levels, four of which are located above the street. It is fair to consider him a true work of art in itself.
The two upper levels are reserved for the museum but from the hall, two works conceived especially for this place welcome the visitor: "Mud Line" Richard Long and "Gaul" Ellsworth Kelly, a monumental sculpture whose opacity contrasts with the building transparency.
The museum has a collection of some 600 works produced from 1960 to today. Presented "by working", they evoke movements like New Realism, Support-Surface and Figuration that originated in the South of France. Arte Povera is particularly well represented with works by Mario Merz, Giuseppe Penone, Alighiero Boetti and Giovanni Anselmo. It also includes important works by American artists such as Richard Artschwager, Allan Kaprow, Joseph Kosuth and Christopher Wool. Part of the collection is also devoted to German painting with works by Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Albert Oehlen supplemented by Thomas Schütte facilities.
Finally, Sophie Calle, Annette Messager or Suzanne Lafont, major figures of the French establishment, are also present (photographic works or installations). Temporary exhibitions are also presented regularly.
Open Tuesday to Sunday. Price: from 5 to 8 euros. Free the first Sunday of the month. Information +33 4 66 76 35 70 or +33 4 66 76 35 35.
