Chronicle of an exhibition
20 years of the MAC VAL, a visionary anniversary
20 years ago, the Val-de-Marne department inaugurated its museum, the MAC VAL. This anniversary is an opportunity to confirm the quality of the museum's heritage, the result of the expert and remarkable sedimentation of over 40 years of acquisitions into a unique collection. It is also an opportunity to reaffirm the expression of a renewed museum, open to the future.
This new display, devised by the curatorial team, is the result of a shared curatorial process: the selection of works on view to the public was conceived in an unprecedented and collegial way with all the museum's teams. Regularly convened in workshops, the proposals, choices, debates and selections have been discussed, stormed, rejoiced over and finally agreed upon. Visitors will have the pleasure of discovering or rediscovering symbolic works from the collection. The tour is intended to evoke the memories, emotions and discoveries that we have all shared in 20 years of life at the MAC VAL.
Born of a departmental policy of support for artists implemented in 1982, the MAC VAL collection is dedicated to “contemporary art in France since the 1950s”. Over the years, the collection has developed a unique and strong character, bringing together leading and emerging artists.
Regularly renewed, the collection's exhibitions offer the opportunity to rediscover works in a new thematic, context and approach. In 2025, to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the MAC VAL is planning an exhibition devoted to the hierarchy of genres. In 1667, art historian André Félibien set out the hierarchy of genres in the preface to his Conférences de l'Académie Royale de peinture et de sculpture. He defined a classification that would govern academic painting, establishing the idea of noble genres and sub-genres, where subject matter takes precedence over technical mastery or craftsmanship.
The “Ideal genre. En principe, une tentative d'épuisement” takes a mischievous look at each of the five genres in this hierarchy: history painting, portraiture, genre scenes, landscape and still life.
Curated by Nicolas Surlapierre
Co-curated by Yuan-Chih Cheng, Anaïs Linares, Margaut Segui and the MAC VAL teams.
https://www.macval.fr/Le-genre-ideal
