1 Casino, Monte-Carlo
2 Corniche d'Or
3 Èze
4 Fondation Maeght, St-Paul-de-Vence
5 Îles de Lérins
6 MAMAC, Nice
7 Musée Matisse, Nice
8 Musée Océanographique, Monaco
9 Musée Picasso, Antibes
10 Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
The remarkable Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain traces the history of French and American avant-garde from the 1960s.
MAMAC was inaugurated in 1990 as a vast monument to the ambitions of the city's former National Front leader, Jacques Médecin. Even the building, designed by Yves Bayard and Henri Vidal, is a masterpiece of modern art with its four octagonal, grey-marble towers linked together by glassed-in walkways.
MAMAC's collections are exhibited in rotation and reflect the main avant-garde art movements of the last 40 years in France and the US. The primary focus is on French neo-realism and the artists of the second Ècole de Nice, featuring works by Rayasse, César, Arman, Ben, Tinguely, and Yves Klein. Many of their works involve smashing, tearing, burning or distorting mundane objects of everyday life as a spoof on society and the highbrow art world. Look out also for artists of the support-surface movement (who sought to reduce painting to its materialistic reality, concentrating on the frame and the texture of the canvas) and the graffiti-obsesssed 'fluxus' movement, best portrayed in the fun, push-button Little Shop of Ben. American abstraction, minimalism and pop art are also well represented. Highlights include several Lichtenstein cartoons and Warhol's famous Campbell's soup tin. No visit to MAMAC would be complete without visiting the rooftop terraces for unsurpassed views of Nice. Here on special occasions, the illumination of Klein's Mur de Feu (Wall of Fire) is a unique spectacle.Address: promenade des Arts
Phone: 04 93 62 61 62
Open: Daily 10-6. Closed Tue and hols
Restaurant: Café and restaurant (Moderately priced)
Bus: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 25
Train: Nice
Accessible: Excellent
Admission: Moderate
Practical: Shop. Auditorium showing art videos
| COUNTRY |
| France |
| REGION |
| French Riviera
|
| Viewing |
| Top Ten |
| What To See |
| Where To ... |
| Practical Matters |
| CITIES |
| Paris |
| Lyon |
| Nice |
| Strasbourg |
| MAPS |
| World |
| Europe |
| TRAVEL BOOK |
 |