It was due to be completed in spring 2020! Culture enthusiasts, staff and elected officials in Troyes have had to be patient as the renovation project at the modern art museum in Troyes (Aube) has fallen behind schedule. First of all, the fault is due to Covid, which caused significant delays, but above all to the many bad things that happened right from the start of the work. It must be said that its building, classified as a Historic Monument, was built in the 16th and 17th centuries in the former episcopal palace of Troyes, which housed the bishop right next to the cathedral. It had never been renovated since the museum was inaugurated in 1982 by former resident of the Republic François Mitterrand.
“We discovered that the floor was no longer very safe, that the framework was experiencing difficulties,” confirms Marc Sebeyran, deputy mayor of Troyes in charge of culture. Between the calls for tenders to be relaunched for companies and a works budget which has more than doubled (nearly 7 million euros in total), the time took a long time even if, at the strong request of the mayor of Troyes François Baroin , the opening of the 2nd floor in December 2022 was able to keep the public waiting. Now fully accessible to disabled people, it is a brand new museum that visitors will be able to discover with 2000 m2 of exhibition spaces, or an additional 400 m2.
Read alsoNathanaelle Herbelin, the surprise slap at the Musée d’Orsay
“We have created a room which will host high-quality, international temporary exhibitions,” adds Marc Sebeyran. Inside, the museum route has been redesigned, respecting the spirit of the collections of Pierre and Denise Lévy, a couple of famous Trojan textile industrialists, whose donations (nearly 2000 works dated from 1850 to 1950) are to be the origin of the creation of the Museum of Modern Art. “We didn’t move the walls,” laughs Éric Blanchegorge, general director of the Troyes museums. But we completely redone the technical equipment, in particular the lighting. The works will appear differently, thanks to this new lighting, but also to the new colors of the walls, the new windows, the introduction of a film inside the tour on the destiny of the Lévy couple and their collection …”
We will find the works of Courbet, Seurat, Modigliani, Picasso Balthus, Dufy, Matisse and Buffet in a completely redesigned museum tour. Olivier Frajman and Carole Bell
If, apart from a few new features, the works on display will be those present at closing, “they will be seen by the public in a totally different way, as if we were discovering them for the first time”. First of all, on the 2nd floor, “the visitor will rediscover the whole spirit of the collection, chronologically,” explains Marc Sebeyran. “Through the promotion of realists, impressionists, post-impressionists, the Fauves of course, the Nabis, Cubism and even African art. » Paintings by Courbet, Seurat, Modigliani and even a bronze by Pablo Picasso await the visitor on the 2nd floor.
Also read: In 2025, it will be the Reims Museum of Fine Arts to be resurrected!
On the 1st floor, we will discover collections of Maurice Marinot, Trojan painter and glassmaker from the first half of the 20th century, "The greatest glassmaker of the century according to the minister of the time", a stroll which will also cross the expressionism of the First World War, with numerous works by André Derain, one of the founders of Fauvism, who was very close to the Lévy couple. Finally, on the ground floor, 20th century figurative art will be highlighted. “With personalities as rich as Balthus, Dufy, Matisse and Buffet,” specifies Marc Sebeyran.
The visit ends in the sculpture garden, completely redesigned outside, with the latest donations from Parvine Curie, renowned sculptor who created the superb entrance door to the Trojan museum, sculpted in wood in 1981. Without forgetting the works contemporaries of Raynaud, Martine Martine (daughter of the Léy couple), Cardenas and Séchas. To attract visitors from afar, the Troyes town hall is preparing a major communication operation “from the week of reopening, aimed at the Paris region”, explains Marc Sebeyran.
Totally free from April 16 to May 12
“We are going to have 15 days of intense communication in Paris through displays in 102 metro stations, 700 spots on the digital panels at the Gare de l'Est. And then in Reims, six trams will be labeled in the colors of the Museum of Modern Art, between April and June.” With a relay in the national media, “we are aiming for 35 million contacts”, aims the elected official from Troy. Enough to promote the major highlights to come, such as the month of total free access, from April 16 to May 12. But also a festive weekend on April 20 and 21 dotted with numerous activities: yoga in the sculpture garden, a storytelling walk, guided tours, creative workshops, family treasure hunts and even theatrical improvisation and a jazz concert around a champagne bar. In June a major international exhibition “never before presented in France” from the Italian Sonia and Massimo Cirulli foundation will be visible in Troyes. Art in all its forms accompanied by screenings of Italian films from the 1940s to 1960s at the CGR cinema in Troyes.