Recent donations and acquisitions are presented in a renewed display of the modern collections. This show highlights the significant support provided by the patrons of the museum - Club du Musée Saint-Pierre, Cercle Poussin,  Friends of the museum - as well as individual donors and artists' families in enriching the 20th and 21st century collections. The presentation, organised around several major themes, is based on new dialogues between modern artists.

A composition by Serge Poliakoff reinforces the evocation of color alongside artworks by Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Léopold Survage, Henri Valensi, Fernand Léger, and Alexej von Jawlensky. Shirley Jaffe's paintings, presented in dialogue with Henri Matisse's late works, recall the importance of the discovery of cut-out gouaches by American artists living in Paris after 1945.

Henri Matisse
Jeune femme en blanc, fond rouge (Modèle allongé, robe blanche) [Young Woman in White, Red Background (Reclining model, white dress)], 1946
Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Antoine Guerrier

The radical nature of Simon Hantaï and Judit Reigl's works attests to the influential role these artists played on the art scene from the 60s to the 80s.

Judit Reigl
Écriture en masse. Rondo de carrés, 1960-1964
©ADAGP, Paris, 2025. Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Antoine Guerrier

The addition of a still life by Jean Fautrier to the collections invites to the contemplation of Giorgio Morandi, Geneviève Asse, and Georges Adilon, artists familiar with this theme. Pablo Picasso, Wifredo Lam, and Francis Bacon introduce surrealism(s). Finally, the modern galleries welcome an exceptional sand painting by André Masson displayed alongside works by Max Ernst, Roberto Matta, and Dorothea Tanning.

Tribute to Henri Lachièze-Rey

The museum also pays tribute to Henri Lachièze-Rey, key figure of the 20th-century Lyon art scene. Three of the artist's paintings were added to the collections between 2016 and 2019, thanks in particular to a donation from his daughters. The presentation brings together twenty works to complement the museum's acquisitions, evoking certain themes dear to the artist: café scenes, nudes, portraits, landscapes, etc., most of which are being exhibited for the first time.

Henri Lachièze-Rey
La Robe de chambre bleue, 1959
©ADAGP, Paris, 2025. Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Antoine Guerrier

Associé dès les débuts de sa carrière dans les années 1960 au mouvement Supports/Surfaces sans pour autant y être officiellement affilié, François Rouan a mené une trajectoire singulière, déconstruisant la structure traditionnelle du tableau pour ouvrir de nouvelles pistes. À partir des années 1980, il élargit sa pratique à de nouveaux médiums, photographiques, puis filmiques.

François Rouan
Vénus écaille IV, 2018/2024
©ADAGP, Paris, 2025. Image © Lyon MBA - Photo Antoine Guerrier

Le musée des Beaux-Arts a choisi d’interroger son œuvre à travers le thème de l’empreinte, objet d’une réflexion constamment présente dans son travail, depuis ses débuts jusqu’à aujourd’hui. L’empreinte aussi bien sous ses formes les plus littérales que dans l’exploration des notions de ressouvenance et de citation.  

Catalogue de l'exposition

Skira. 192 pages. Format : 22,5 x 24,7 cm. Prix de vente : 39 € TTC.

Plongez au cœur d’une aventure unique au musée avec cet escape game immersif !

Au cœur du musée, un secret enfoui depuis des siècles refait surface. Ce lieu, autrefois un couvent, abritait un grimoire légendaire, réputé pour piéger quiconque osait percer ses mystères dans… le monde des œuvres d’art. Votre mission : explorer le musée, résoudre des énigmes cachées dans les œuvres elles-mêmes, et lever la malédiction avant qu’il ne soit trop tard. Chaque tableau, chaque sculpture devient un portail vers une énigme captivante.

Equipés d’oreillettes, d’une carte du musée ainsi que d’un communicateur, vous êtes en mission ! Une heure pour résoudre toutes les énigmes et venir à bout du scénario.

À partir de 15 ans en autonomie. 
À partir de 12 ans, avec accompagnants.

This exhibition brings together for the first time the three paintings by Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán (1590-1664) depicting Saint Francis of Assisi standing mummified.  These works are held by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The subject matter of these emblematic works contributes to their singularity, as does their masterly execution. The body of Saint Francis (c. 1182-1226) appears here as Pope Nicholas V (1397-1455) is said to have discovered it in the crypt of the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi (Italy) in 1449: standing, eyes open and turned towards heaven, like a living person.  

Present before the French Revolution in Lyon's Convent of the Colinettes, on the slopes of the Croix-Rousse hill, the painting of Saint Francis in Lyon's Musée des Beaux-Arts was the first work by Zurbarán to join the collections of a French museum in 1807. Since then, it has become one of the centrepieces of the museum's  paintings collection and continues to impress visitors with its expressive power and remarkable quality.

This exhibition explores the inspiration and sources of this highly original creation, as well as the prodigious reception of Zurbarán's Saint Francis paintings by artists from the 19th century to the present day. It questions the meaning of the avatars of these three iconic works from the Golden Age, Spain's period of cultural influence in Europe (1492-1681).

The celebration of the beauty of Zurbarán's work, of its "modernity", goes hand in hand with the demonstration of the timelessness of these masterpieces which offer matter for reflection, enjoyment and new creations in every era.   

The exhibition’s catalogue is for sale at the museum’s bookshop
El Viso editions. 336 pages, 38€ 

A Spanish season

• Don't miss the exhibition Ribera. Shadows and Light at the Petit Palais, until February 23, 2025
• From March 10, 2025, the exhibition Zurbarán (sobre) Natural will be presented at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

Zurbarán. Reinventar una obra maestra

Por primera vez, la exposición reúne las tres pinturas de Francisco de Zurbarán de San Francisco de pie y momificado, actualmente en el Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, el Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) de Barcelona y el Museo de Bellas Artes de Boston, respectivamente.

La exposición explora los motores y las fuentes de esta creación, e identifica y cuestiona el significado de los múltiples avatares de estos iconos del Siglo de Oro, reuniendo un centenar de obras creadas entre los siglos XVI y XXI: pinturas, esculturas, dibujos, grabados, fotografías y piezas de alta costura. La exposición pone de relieve la prodigiosa recepción de las obras icónicas creadas por Zurbarán por parte de artistas de los siglos XIX, XX y XXI. La exposición estará abierta del 5 de diciembre de 2024 al 2 de marzo de 2025 en Lyon.

Over time, some of the paintings depicting Étretat have acquired an iconic status and become part of the collective imaginary. The museum, in partnership with the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, will present an exhibition devoted to representations of Étretat, based on four major works held in the collections of the two institutions, all of which were painted in Étretat: two Waves by Gustave Courbet (1869-1870), and two paintings by Claude Monet, The Luncheon (1868-1869) and Rough sea, Etretat (1883). These works testify of the central role played by this village, located on the Normandy coast, in the development of new pictorial languages over the course of the 19^th century. Through a selection of paintings, drawings, photographs and archives, the exhibition traces the story of the discovery of Étretat by artists, painters and writers alike, and highlights its construction as a mythical landscape, from Eugène Isabey to Henri Matisse. 

The exhibition is organised by the museum of Fine Arts of Lyon in association with the Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main.

Etretat, jenseits der Klippen
Courbet, Monet, Matisse

Vom 29. November 2025 bis zum 1. März 2026 zeigt das Museum eine Ausstellung, die den Darstellungen von Étretat gewidmet ist, von denen einige im Laufe der Zeit ikonische Bedeutung erlangt haben. Diese künstlerischen Visionen haben sich in der Vorstellungswelt durchgesetzt.
Die Erhabenheit des Ortes Étretat mit dem Meer, seinen Kalksteinklippen und Feuersteinen und den in die Kreide gehauenen Toren, verführt Maler, Schriftsteller, Komponisten und Fotografen.
Die Schwärmerei für Étretat von Delacroix, Hugo, Flaubert, Maupassant, Courbet, Monet, Matisse über ein Jahrhundert hinweg hat eine Reihe von Visionen hervorgebracht die die Ausstellung anhand einer Reihe von Gemälden, Zeichnungen, Fotografien und Archiven nachvollzieht.

Eine Ausstellung des Museum für Schöne Künste von Lyon in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main.
 

This exhibition devoted to American artist Robert Guinan (1934-2016) is the first to be held in a French museum since an exhibition at the Museum of Grenoble in 1981 and another at the Academy of France in Rome in 2005. Exhibitions of his works at the Albert Loeb Gallery (Paris) between 1973 and 2008 made the artist known in France.

This important selection of nearly eighty paintings and drawings is completed by two series of lithographs, one treating the theme of slavery while the other was inspired by the war poems of English pacifist poet Wilfred Owen. Originally from Watertown, New York, Guinan moved to Chicago in 1959. After having worked in Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art styles during his training, he adopted Realism in the 1970s, essentially using underprivileged members of society as his models. Deeply attached to Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas, the artist is sometimes compared to Edward Hopper.

However, while Hopper depicts anonymous characters, Guinan paints portraits which reveal a sense of brotherhood with his models. In 1977, the museum acquired Portrait of Nelly Breda from the Lyon gallery Le Lutrin. This painting represents the mother of musician Emile Breda, Guinan’s friend and nightlife companion, who introduced him to most of his models. Notably through his bar scenes and portraits, Guinan delivers a traightforward reality of those living on the fringe of the American dream.

Exhibition curators

Sylvie Ramond, Director General of Pôle des musées d’art de Lyon MBA | macLYON. Chief Curator, Director Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, and Albert and Sonia Loeb.

The  exhibition Forms of the Ruin has its origins in the book by art historian and archaeologist Alain Schnapp, Une histoire universelle des ruines. Des origines aux Lumières, published in 2020 by Éditions du Seuil, of which it is a variation. The aim of the exhibition is to make this history visible, from a global and comparative perspective, from prehistory to the contemporary period.

Why are some works considered to be memorials while others arouse no interest at all until they are rediscovered ? The Greeks looked at the ruins of Egypt or the remains of the palaces of Assyria with unparalleled enthusiasm. The Romans were mad for about Greek works of art and flocked to the sanctuaries to admire them. The clerics of the Middle Ages regarded Roman remains with both admiration and concern. During the Renaissance, curiosity about the Greco-Roman world and the civilisations of America took hold. During the Enlightenment, this interest spread TO include Asia, Africa and Oceania. This Western scenario differs from that of China, Japan and the Arab-Muslim world, which developed their own uses of ruins.

Drawing on a selection of over 300 works, this exhibition is designed as a journey through ruins, in an ongoing dialogue between civilisations and is centered around four themes: memory and oblivion, the tension between nature and culture, the link between the material and the immaterial, and the confrontation between the present and the future. Its ambition is to question societies through history and at the same time to confront the research of contemporary artists in their desire to interpret the ruins of our industrial societies and imagine their future.

Voir l'ailleurs dans l'ici

La mondialisation a connu une accélération considérable ces dernières décennies mais elle s’inscrit également dans une continuité d’échanges et de dialogues interculturels. L’exposition Connecter les mondes présente un ensemble de formes artistiques d’hier et d’aujourd’hui qui ne connaissent pas réellement de frontière ou de limite géographique.

Si les artistes, les techniques, les objets n’ont jamais cessé de circuler, l’histoire de ces échanges se mêle à celle, douloureuse, des conquêtes et des dominations. Dans un même temps, la fascination, l’appropriation ou l’assimilation d’autres cultures ont construit les regards et les sensibilités des artistes et des spectateurs.

À l’aune d’une société plurielle plongée dans la globalisation, l’exposition Connecter les mondes est l’occasion d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur ce dialogue artistique, à partir d’un ensemble de peintures, dessins, installations et vidéos, issu des collections du musée et du macLYON, et enrichi par des prêts exceptionnels.

Tarif réduit sur présentation du billet d'entrée du macLYON (de moins de 6 mois).

Commissariat :

Sylvie Ramond, directeur général du pôle des musées d’art, MBA | macLYON, directeur du musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, conservateur en chef du patrimoine

Léa Saint Raymond, maître de conférences en histoire de l’art à l’université Paris Sciences et Lettres, auteur de Fragments d’une histoire globale de l’art, Paris, Presses de l’École normale supérieure, 2021