In January, Joan Miró caused quite a stir on Instagram. The Catalan artist (who died in 1983) certainly didn't need this. Nevertheless, he acquired a new set of admirers: the fans of fashion designer Simon Jacquemus, a communication maestro whose brand has 6.4 million Instagram followers. The designer presented his spring-summer 2024 collection at the Fondation Maeght, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, in southeastern France. Since then, said Nicolas Gitton, director of the foundation, "very stylish young people come to pose beneath L'Arc [The Bow, an arch-shaped sculpture by Miró installed in the institution's gardens] and share the images on social media."

Miró is not the only one to get a youthful boost. In 2024, the entire Fondation Maeght is getting a new lease of life. On June 29, to mark its 60^th anniversary, this landmark of 20^th-century art, where the list of exhibited artists looks like a who's who of modern art, went all out. The space, which attracts around 150,000 visitors a year and is one of the milestones on the Côte d'Azur's rich modern art trail, has inaugurated an extension. The original 850 square meters of exhibition space have been extended by a further 500 square meters in the basement. With the site extending over a hill, this basement opens onto the pine forest, offering a view that is as much architectural as it is green.

But where exactly are we? In "an indoor swimming pool, an ultra-modern hospital, an atomic factory or a Tibetan temple?" wondered the writer Elvire de Brissac in Le Monde, on July 24, 1964, at the inauguration of these "buildings resembling a frolic of seagulls." She went on to describe the work of Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert: "Structures where baked brick vies with weathered stone and lime with glass, white curved roofs with corners uplifted like sheets of paper in the wind, flowers and frescoes, sculptures under the pines, ponds and patios, terraces and low walls: the first vision of the Fondation Maeght offers a whole harmony in tawny, dark green and white."

The shadow of a dead son

The work for the 60^th anniversary took over a year and a half. "And it doesn't show! The spirit of my grandparents has been respected," said Isabelle Maeght, the foundation's general administrator and granddaughter of Aimé and Marguerite Maeght. Exactly 60 years ago, alongside her sisters Florence and Françoise, she handed a red velvet cushion with the keys to the site to the cultural affairs minister, André Malraux, when she was 9 years old. Her grandparents, for whom this foundation was much more than a mere pastime, stood beside her.

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