The museum pays homage to Albert Ayme, who died in June, with a show of works from his 1962 collection, le Relief soustractif – in which he intensified his exploration of a "language with a transparent structure", Paradigme du bleu jaune rouge (1983) and, in installments, the whole of his Triple Suite en jaune à la gloire de Van Gogh (1981, 1985 and 1986).
Composed of 27 variations on unprepared canvas, this work represents a quest led by a musical approach to colour. Inspired by a letter Van Gogh wrote from Arles in 1889 in which he referred to "the high, yellow note", the Suite is a celebration that weaves together three primary colours, superimposing but not blending them, as with a three-part harmony for voice. Its acquisition was made possible by the society of friends and partners of the museum, whose extensive fundraising resulted in its donation to the Réattu museum in 2007.
Following the artist's death in 2008, her relatives invited the museum to make a selection from the contents of the artist's studio. Around thirty works came into the collections. The work of Evelyn Ortlieb examines above all the notion of script: through the use of unexpected supports that lend themselves to writing and drawing (slate, industrial textiles) or by experimenting with the properties of materials such as rubber. She highlights the inherent graphism in each object, intensifying its structure, its lines of strength and its flaws. Her work gives a central place to drawing as a visual approach in its own right, especially when it operates in close conjunction with the practice of sculpture and painting.
These two exhibition initiatives illustrate the privileged relationship that exists between artists and the museum.
