Musée Fabre Reopens with Soulages Donation and Homage to Jean Fournier

After a four-year renovation, the Musée Fabre in Montpellier reopened in early February 2007, expanding to 9,200 square meters. The collection primarily spans the 16th to 19th centuries, with notable holdings from the Alfred Bruyas donation including Gustave Courbet and Alexandre Cabanel, and enhanced Frédéric Bazille works acquired between 2002 and 2004. Contemporary art had been marginalized, but a recent donation by Pierre Soulages—twenty paintings plus a loan of twelve works—now addresses this gap. Soulages, who served on the architecture competition jury, oversaw the installation of his works, insisting on lateral, dimmed lighting that accentuates his "Outrenoir." A particularly successful room features paintings displayed on cables, allowing them to appear weightless and forcing viewers to move to witness shifting light variations. The reopening exhibition also pays homage to Parisian gallerist Jean Fournier, who died in 2006. The chronological show traces Fournier's career from his accidental presentation of Joseph Sima's works in the early 1950s to his lifelong commitment to abstraction, featuring artists such as Simon Hantaï, James Bishop, Joan Mitchell, Stéphane Bordarier, Bernard Piffaretti, and Frédérique Lucien. The exhibition emphasizes Fournier's refusal of "facility, effects, disguises, deception, and illusion," as described by Yves Michaud in the catalogue.