Double "I"

This exhibition of the MAMC+ collections reveals the recent exceptional donation – over 180 artworks and fifty publications – from Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert, gallerists active in Paris from 1975 to 2004 and major collectors in France. Displayed over 1 000 m2, this exhibition brings the majority of these new works into conversation with the museum’s richly diverse collection, corresponding to the exemplary choices of this erudite pair of art dealers and passionate collectors.

A major asset to our collections, this event constitutes an impressive new episode in the history of donations made by collectors to the MAMC+, like Vicky Rémy or Ninon and François Robelin in the 1990s. With this generous gift, the Durand-Dessert affirms its attachment to a museum to which it has already given a painting by Gerhard Richter (Skull, 1983) and a sculpture by Luciano Fabro (The Eye of God, 1969), two masterpieces featuring at the entrance of the exhibition. Attesting to their confidence in the museum, this gift is accompanied by an archive pertaining to the history of their gallery, as well as multiples and artist’s books bearing witness to their early activity as publishers under the name Multiplicata.

With visionary commitment, the Durand-Desserts worked for several decades to defend an essential sector of contemporary creation, focusing above all on the European scene. They thus provided strong and early support to the German (Beuys, Richter, Rückriem, etc.), English (Hilliard, Flanagan, Tremlett, etc.), and Italian art scenes (Boetti, Kounellis, Merz, etc.), without however neglecting the French context (Lavier, Tatah, Garouste, etc.). Their singular, honed perspective on the art of their time enabled them to form a magnificent personal collection that is as open-minded as it is high-calibre. Many artists that they promoted are now conserved at the MAMC+ and some of their works have been regularly acquired from their gallery. Their significant donation now completes these ensembles, concerning Cadere, Burgin, Morellet, Rutault, or Verjux, while also integrating artists that have not yet been represented, including Brauntuch, Hilliard, Paolini, and Wegman.