An exhibition with a strong symbolic value, which sees the prestigious André Malraux Museum of Modern Art (MuMa) in Le Havre lend part of its collection, the most important for Impressionist paintings in France outside Paris, for the first time in history.
The occasion comes as part of celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, which razed the city of Le Havre to the ground in September 1944, then virtuously rebuilt around its museum, the MuMa, becoming a symbol of modernity and rebirth.
The exhibition, curated by Marianne Mathieu, one of the world’s leading experts on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and Geraldine Lefebvre, Director of MuMa, presents more than 50 pictorial masterpieces, dating from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, that miraculously survived the bombing, signed by leading artists including Renoir, Monet, Sisley, Gauguin, Dufy, Marquet, Boudin and Braque.
Through these works, the exhibition aims to represent an ideal passing of the baton between two cities, Le Havre and Mestre, united by the experience of Total War, to reiterate the importance of cultural heritage in keeping collective memory alive and the value of art as a vehicle for resilience and rebirth.
To reinforce the dialogue between the two cities, moreover, a section of the exhibition will be devoted to an in-depth photographic and documentary look at what has happened in Mestre since the terrible bombing of March 28, 1944, and will present the redevelopment process that began after World War II for the housing stock as well as the industrial area.
