On the occasion of the Portugal-France Season 2022, maat is presenting a broad overview of Antoine de Galbert’s personal collection in Portugal for the first time.

Antoine de Galbert, an amateur collector who enjoys breaking down barriers and creating a dialogue between contemporary and folk arts, and art brut in his collection. A well-known patron of the arts in France, after creating a foundation in his name, he opened La Maison Rouge in 2004, a private arts centre in Paris whose activities shaped the city’s cultural landscape until it closed in 2018. He continues to work through his foundation to promote different forms of contemporary creation, support research into the history of art, help artists and critics to publish their work and enrich museum collections via donations and purchases.

Guided by the site’s history and original purpose, the theme of the nighttime quickly imposed itself. Built in the early 20th century to supply Lisbon and the surrounding region with electricity, the Central Tejo power station bore witness to the far-reaching changes that took place at the start of the last century as power plants made electricity and lighting increasingly ubiquitous. Alongside the emergence of psychoanalysis, this energy revolution transformed the night and our relationship with it.

Providing an endless source of inspiration for artists, the night continues to permeate and infuse art with the philosophical, political, societal, ecological and scientific questions it raises. The night can evoke both hope and dread, but it is also a time and place for the freedom and transgression that offer such fertile ground for creation and are echoed in Antoine de Galbert’s collection.

Arranged in a way that represents the passage from dawn to dusk, from blindness and disorientation to better days on the horizon, from nocturnal dreams to the cosmic night, the exhibition invites visitors to traverse this nocturnal space, which is so ripe for the imagination, dreams and visions of the future.

Artists
Claudio Abate, Marina Abramović, Jane Alexander, Pilar Albarracín, Dieter Appelt, Clément Bagot, Frédéric Benrath, Julien Berthier, Sara Bichão, Olivier Blanckart, Anna Blume and Bernhard Blume, Cathryn Boch, Pierre-Yves Bohm, Christian Boltanski, Michaël Borremans, Marina Bourdoncle, Constantin Brâncuși, Robert Breer, Miriam Cahn, Roman Cieślewicz, David Claerbout, Denise Colomb, Nicolas Darrot, Thierry De Cordier, Philippe De Gobert, Hervé Di Rosa, Hubert Duprat, Leandro Erlich, Didier Faustino, Flavio Favelli, Hans-Peter Feldmann, André Félix, Lucio Fontana, Joan Fontcuberta, Eugen Gabritschevsky, Alberto García-Alix, Gilbert & George, Hans Jörg Georgi, Raoul Hausmann, Zhang Huan, John Isaacs, Šejla Kamerić, Mari Katayama, André Kertész, Jürgen Klauke, Nicolás Lamas, Annie Leibovitz, Eugène Leroy, Urs Lüthi, Tomasz Machciński, Man Ray, Philippe Mayaux, Anthony McCall, Annette Messager, Jorge Molder, Zanele Muholi, Mohror, Jonathan Monk, François Morellet, Roman Opałka, Lucien Pelen, Otto Piene, Éric Pougeau, Arnulf Rainer, Thomas Ruff, Claude Rutault, Frank Elmore Ross, Decebal Scriba, Miri Segal, Paul Sescau, Patti Smith, W. Eugene Smith, Agathe Snow, Louis Soutter, Ceija Stojka, Christer Strömholm, Istvàn Szirànyi, Stéphane Thidet, Alexander Tsikarishvili, Janaina Tschäpe, Nobuko Tsuchiya, Ben Vautier, Francesca Woodman, Thomas Zipp, Jérôme Zonder

Images on the homepage, details of the works Blue Shark (2021) by Sara Bichão (left) and Rug (1966) by Robert Breer (right), both belonging to the Collection Antoine de Galbert. Photos: Bruno Lopes.