Museum of Modern Art – MAMAC

Museum of Modern Art – MAMAC – is located in the heart of Nice, close to Place Garibaldi and not far from Place Masséna. It exhibits art from the 1950’s to the present day

Nationalteatret og museet for moderne kunst MAMAC forbundet med Promenade des Art — *MAMAC Museum on the right and the National Theatre on the left connected by the Promenade des Art – © MAMAC*

Museum of Modern Art – MAMAC

Museum of Modern Art – MAMAC – exhibits European new realism and American pop art. With a collection of nearly 1,400 works by more than 350 artists (with an average of 200 exhibits), the museum offers both permanent exhibitions such as Yves Klein and Niki de Saint Phalle as well as ongoing temporal exhibitions.

The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nice was inaugurated on 21 June 1990, designed by the two architects Yves Bayard and Henri Vidal. The building is shaped like a monumental tetrapod arch towering over the overlying Paillon River. With its square plan, the architecture of the MAMAC building is inspired by the rules of neoclassicism, its structure being in harmony with the nearby Place Garibaldi.

The site connecting the MAMAC Museum with the National Theatre is called the Promenade des Arts.

From the museum it is only a few hundred meters to the famous Place Masséna.

Tagterrassen på museet for moderne kunst MAMAC i Nice — *The terraces offer sweeping views of Nice – ©MAMAC*

Built with Roman marble

The facades of the Museum of Modern Art – MAMAC are covered with smooth white Carrara marble. Carrara marble or Luna marble as the Romans called it, is a type of white or blue-gray marble popular for use in sculpture and building décor. It has been broken since Roman times in the mountains just outside the town of Carrara located in Tuscany, Italy.

Exhibitions

The exhibition rooms cover over 6 levels/floors.

Level 0 is entrance and lobby
Levels 1 and 2 are for the temporary exhibitions
Levels 3 and 4 are for permanent exhibitions
Level 5 is the roof terrace

MAMAC’s genesis

Following the 1985 Autour de Nice exhibition at Acropolis (congress building), it became clear to the city that a dedicated museum of modern art was needed.

In the same year, an agreement was reached in cooperation with the State on the purchase of works of art. Already two years later, an agreement was reached on financing the future construction, which was completed in the summer of 1990.

By Tommy Sverre – 2021

Gallery from MAMAC exhibition: