Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain (also known as MAMAC)

If you «keep abreast of the times» and like contemporary art, be sure to visit this unusual building in the center of Nice. However, if you do not have such a special love for this kind of art in your heart, this museum is always worth a visit (entrance is free). If you climb up, you will find constructions of the roof terraces of the towers, with breathtaking views, opening to the city, the mountains and the azure sea. (Also, here at the height of thirty meters, you can walk and relax in a small garden).

The Musée d'art moderne et d’art contemporain, opened there not long ago, in 1990, was created with the financial support of the French State. In the museum, you can see the work of many representatives of the various trends in avant-garde art (since the 60s of last century to the present).

The project was designed by the famous architect Henri Vidaland Yves Bayard. Thanks to their professionalism and imagination, Nice received this building, extraordinarily beautiful, composed of four towers of thirty meters. The smooth facades of the towers are covered with white Carrara marble, have no windows, but they are connected by transparent glass transitions.

A total of 9 rooms for museum exhibitions (whose total area is four thousand square meters) is at the disposal of visitors. The rooms are located on three levels: the permanent collections are positioned on the second and third level. In addition, various exhibitions, changing from time to time, are arranged on the first level.

The Musée d’art moderne et d'art contemporain widely presents the works of the new realists – Yves Klein (the museum possesses 20 works by this native of Nice, one of the founders of New Realism), Christo, César Baldaccini, Gérard Deschamps, François Dufrêne, and many others.

The visitors can also see the work of artists of the Italian avant-garde, of the German Fauves, «pillars» of American pop art (Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein), and the abstractionist such as Larry Poons, Kenneth Noland, Olivier Mosset, Frank Stella and Martin Barre. The minimalism is illustrated by Richard Serra and Sol Lewitt. In addition, there is an opportunity to see examples of the naive and ironic art, graffiti and comics.

A curious fact – the plans to build such a museum in Nice were «built» in the middle of the twentieth century. First, the city government had planned to convert an existing gallery (this plan was also supported by Henri Matisse), but it was not embodied in life.

Later on, they have decided to tie a modern wing to the Historical Museum in the Palace of Masséna (Musée historique dans le Palais de Masséna) but the project was «rejected». However, the plans to build the current building of the Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain was finally «matured» after the success of the French artistic movement «New Realism».