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Edouard Carmignac at
The Foundation.
Opposite, from left:
Jean
Michel Basquiat’s
Zing
(1984);
Les Trois
Alchimistes
(2018) by Jaume Plensa
Main:
Untitled
(1962), Martial Raysse
(left) and Gerhard Richter’s
Evelyn
(Blau)
(1964).
Left:
Edouard Carmignac
with Prince Harry after winning the
Queen’s Cup
Carmignac’s favourite artist, Roy Lichtenstein, making
it the most important private collection of pieces by the
American Pop Art icon in France.
The Foundation is also home to photography
and photojournalism, another interest of Carmignac’s,
with a €50,000 cash prize given to the winner of the
Carmignac Photojournalism Award each year. The
prize enables them to carry out an in-depth reportage
on human rights violations, which are not covered in
traditional media outlets.
Among all the contemporary acquisitions, however,
are two jewels by Sandro Botticelli that profoundly
shift the tone of the collection: one is a Madonna and
Child, the other, a Venus. Carmignac has declared he is
not interested in other Renaissance artists or Old
Masters, but his particular fascination with Botticelli,
he explains, relates to the artist’s notion of beauty, and
how the Italians set the standard for centuries to come.
H I S F A S C I N AT I O N W I T H B O T T I C E L L I
R E L AT E S T O T H E A R T I S T ’ S N O T I O N
O F B E A U T Y A N D H OW T H E I TA L I A N ’ S
S E T T H E S TA N D A R D
While Lichtenstein keeps Carmignac’s heart, Botticelli
incites his desire.
The concept of gathering a coherent body of art,
stylistically or otherwise, was clearly far from
Carmignac’s objective when he began buying pieces.
‘I don’t necessarily like the concept of owning a
collection,’ he says. ‘The works I have bought over the
years are more like a “cabinet of curiosities” of my life
– traces of my experiences, thoughts and emotions.’
Intimate as it may be, Carmignac has now set his
flock free. Fondation Carmignac’s inaugural exhibition,
Sea of Desire, opened on 2 June, 2018, and displays 70
works from the collection. But Carmignac doesn’t just
want to share his trove; his wish is to suffuse new
meaning into his collection by handing the keys of the
Villa to a different curator every year.
‘I want an outside eye to look at the works we have,
and use the space to pass on his own message,’ explains
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© THE ESTATE OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT / © ADAGP PARIS 2018; MARC
DOMAGE/ © FONDATION CARMIGNAC; © ADAGP PARIS 2018; © GERHARD
RICHTER 2018; TONY RAMIREZ/IMAGESOFPOLO.COM
