Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix Celebrates 50 Years of Pioneering Art

The Musée de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix in Les Sables d'Olonne marks its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1963 by historian-novelist Jean Huguet, it opened in 1964 under director Pierre Chaigneau, focusing on living art. Key acquisitions include Gaston Chaissac's works from 1966 onward, with donations from Camille Chaissac and Annie Raison-Chaissac. In 1987, Jacqueline Victor-Brauner bequeathed 34 works by Victor Brauner. Successive directors—Claude Fournet, Henry-Claude Cousseau, Didier Semin, Didier Ottinger, Benoît Decron, and current director Gaëlle Rageot-Deshayes—each staged landmark exhibitions: Léon Golub (1975), Antonin Artaud (1980), Robert Combas (1985), Philip Guston's first French retrospective (1995), Max Beckmann's second French show (1994), and first French retrospectives for Peter Saul (1999), Anton Prinner (2006), and Carlo Zinelli (2003). The anniversary exhibition, curated by Rageot-Deshayes, groups works into thematic blocks, including "the unclassifiables," Supports/Surfaces abstraction, and a "death block" featuring Peter Saul, Philip Guston, Georg Baselitz, and Jean Dubuffet. Despite its acclaimed collection, the museum building is outdated, with poor lighting and dated fixtures, described as "a Ferrari on blocks" due to lack of funds.