Nice, Summer, Art. Thu-Van Tran, We Live in the Flicker, MAMAC, Nice, 10.06-01.10.2023. Matisse in the 1930s. Through the Lens of Cahiers d’Art, Musée Matisse, Nice, 23.06.2023-24.09.2023

Abstract

When you first arrive on the Côte d’Azur you expect an incredibly beautiful seaside, the sort you see on Instagram, Saint Tropez movies or in old postcards found around the house. You expect sunshine and a sky melting in a sparkling azurite sea. The advertisement is adequate, but the French Riviera is much more than that. You pass from Italy to France without feeling a cultural transfer on the coast, it’s as if the two countries have put the best of each other together, in the only place where this was possible: Nice. A huge, dense city of mountain and sea, with luxuriant hills, and lavish courtyards spilling out onto the stony slope and down into the sea. A sea that is always calm, torrid and... blue. Nice is not only special for this Franco-Italian overlap that permeates the atmosphere, but also for the abundance of art! Maybe it’s something one doesn’t really anticipate when planning a summer vacation, but the Cote d’Azur’s incredible culture and art are overwhelming.