Fontevraud Exhibition Explores Two Centuries of Painting and Photography

The Musée d'Art Moderne de Fontevraud presents "Chambre noire, toile blanche" from June 6 to October 4, 2026, tracing the intertwined histories of painting and photography from the 19th century to today. The exhibition, co-curated by museum director Dominique Gagneux, spans the museum and the adjacent royal abbey founded in 1101. It features works from the Cligman collection alongside loans from prestigious institutions and private collectors. Highlights include photomontages of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, experiments by Edgar Degas and Maurice Denis, Polaroids by Peyram, and a monumental installation by Ange Leccia referencing Monet's Nymphéas. The show juxtaposes painters who also photographed—Eugène Delacroix, Camille Corot, David Hockney—with canonical photographers like Eugène Atget, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and André Kertész. Contemporary practitioners such as Juliette Agnel, Anne-Charlotte Finel, Valérie Belin, and Nicolas Floc'h are featured, alongside artists who blend media, including Viviane Sassen, Elizabeth Lennard, and Saul Leiter. The exhibition also nods to art history through works by Daniel Gordon and Bill Viola.