FAMM in Mougins – museum dedicated to female artists

FAMM in Mougins is the first private museum in Europe dedicated to female artists. The museum invites you to an extraordinary art experience, which is among the best on the Côte d’Azur.

FAMM museum i Mougins — *The museum dedicated to female artists in Mougins is an extraordinary art experience – ©cityxee.com*

FAMM in Mougins – when art becomes art

FAMM (Femmes Artistes Musee Mougins) was created by Christian Levett and exhibits over a hundred works created by more than 80 female artists from around the world.

The museum’s art is exhibited on four floors in the former MACM (Mougins Museum of Classic Art), which since 2011 has been located in the heart of the historic village of Mougins.

Today, the museum houses a breathtaking selection of exceptional works of art – including paintings, sculptures and photographs by top female artists – that have marked the major artistic movements from Impressionism to the present day.

The galleries in FAMM

Art you can experience in FAMM

The permanent exhibition is organized chronologically from Impressionism to the present day, with each floor dedicated to a specific period, except the second floor which is specifically dedicated to figurative art with no regards of periods.

The first gallery

The exhibition begins on the ground floor with the Impressionist movement, highlighting works by artists such as Berthe Morisot, one of the movement's founders, along with Eva Gonzales or Mary Cassatt, and continues with Post-Impressionism, represented among others by the oil on canvas Le fils du roi (1906) by Jacqueline Marvel.

Lilla Cabot Perry, Girl on a Balcony, 1894 - ©FAMM Mougins

Representations of daily life and landscapes give way to the fantastical and whimsical forms that define Surrealism. Among the notable contributions to this significant movement exhibited in this gallery, one can admire Les étrangères (1968) by Leonor Fini or Mid-Day of the Canary (1967) by Leonora Carrington.

The second gallery

The museum's first floor is dedicated to abstraction. The works include iconic works from the great post-war artistic movement that developed in the United States - abstract expressionism.

For example, Prophecy (1956) by Lee Krasner, Abstraction #3 (1959) by Elaine de Kooning and Joan Mitchell's Rufus' Rock (1966), inspired by one of her stays on the French Riviera.

The third gallery

The second floor is dedicated to figurative art, with styles as expressive as they are diverse.

Important works exhibited here, such as the sculpture Nature Study (2007) by Louise Bourgeois, the painting Jackie Curtis as a boy (1972) by Alice Neel and the photograph Carrying the Skeleton (2008) by Marina Abramović, add a psychological dimension to the representation of the body.

Alice NEEL, Jackie Curtis as a Boy, 1972 © The Estate of Alice Neel

The fourth gallery

The visit culminates in the basement floor with an eclectic exhibition of 21st century artworks featuring contemporary female artists carrying on the legacy of their predecessors.

Jenny SAVILLE, Generation, 2012-14 © ADAGP, Paris, 2024

For example, one can find the sculpture Tit-Cat Down (2012) by Sarah Lucas, the oil on canvas Hurricane (2007) by Tracey Emin, formerly in the collection of George Michael, or the work on paper Generation (2012-2014) by Jenny Saville RA.

Christian Levett

Founder of FAMM in Mougins - Christian Levett

Christian Levett has been an art collector for nearly 30 years and is recognized for his philanthropic commitment to art and other causes. He is the originator of the ambitious FAMM project.

The wider Levett art collection features a growing selection of almost 600 works by women artists, which will be exhibited through regular rotations at the museum, helping to provide visitors with a very special art experience.

"After collecting art for a quarter of a century, my taste has evolved, so I think it's time for the museum to evolve as well. I'm looking forward to opening our new museum FAMM, which I'm sure will quickly become a must-visit for art lovers, students, researchers and curators alike," Christian Levett declares.

Christian Levett heads a collection of around 2,000 works and has repeatedly demonstrated his desire to increase the visibility of female artists. Since March 2021, he has been organizing private tours of his palace in Florence, decorated exclusively with works by women, for groups of museum visitors, academics and collectors.

He has supported exhibitions and published the book Abstract Expressionists in 2022.

Why women

"As I was rereading an art history classic and turned the last page, I found myself wondering, 'but where are the women?' "

CHRISTIAN LEVETT

The origins of Christian Levett's collection go back to the mid-1990s. Driven by his passion for art and history, he established the Museum of Classical Art in Mougins in 2011, famous for its juxtaposition of ancient artefacts and modern art.

As he continually enriched his collection, Christian Levett became captivated by museum-quality works created by women. Subsequently, he acquired several works created by both established and emerging female artists.

Historically, women artists have been largely underrepresented in museums and rarely mentioned in specialist publications, despite their remarkable contributions to the art world.

They often worked alongside their male colleagues and mutually inspired each other. For artists like Helen Frankenthaler, art transcends gender.

"I'm a painter, I'm a woman... Gender contributes no more to the value of a work than any other adjective you can put before the word painter - whether it's about color, religion, wealth or culture"

FAMM will play a key role in promoting women artists alongside already established institutions such as the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC, USA or the Frauenmuseum in Bonn, Germany.

It is also important to highlight that the number of temporary exhibitions dedicated to these "forgotten" artists has increased rapidly in recent years in major museums worldwide: Musée d'Orsay, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Paris, Center Pompidou, Denver Art Museum, Royal Academy of London, Guggenheim Bilbao and many others.

Among the many initiatives that address this topic, it is important to mention the many research projects, publications, conferences and podcasts, such as Katy Hessel's The Great Women Artists, and organizations such as AWARE that greatly contribute to the dissemination of these studies and to create an inclusive and diverse artistic landscape.

From press release FAMM Mougins - 2024