Expressions of matter:faces of a collection
Exhibition from 12 October 2024 to 12 January 2025
Since the 19th century, the Roubaix-based museum has received donations on a regular basis throughout its history which have added to the vitality of the collections. This story includes creators with links to the region that have played a particularly valuable role and, in recent years, some families of artists and some collectors have been keen to enhance the presence of the adventure of the Roubaix Group in the collection built around this adventure which is very much part of the local collective memory.
In 2023, we were contacted by a couple of collectors who, at one point in their lives, had chosen to assemble substantial selections of works by several key figures of the Roubaix Group. La Piscine took a particular interest in this generous proposal and, in 2018, during its expansion, it set aside some permanent exhibition spaces specifically for these artists. What’s more, given what was available to us at the time, some notable works strangely complemented the groups that had already been put together. This is the case with the terracotta pieces by Eugène Dodeigne, which, until now, had never been included in our collections. For other artists, such as Jean Roulland, the donors have expressed their enthusiasm by offering a large number of works. As a result, La Piscine has really established itself as a one of the truly important places to view the works of this recently deceased artist.
Consequently, the main part of this historic donation of 61 works expresses a detailed and very evident knowledge of the players in the Roubaix Group. In addition to the aforementioned Eugène Dodeigne (1 lithograph, 2 drawings, 2 paintings and 14 sculptures) and Jean Roulland (23 drawings and 2 sculptures), the names of Pierre Hennebelle (1 painting), Marie-Christine Remmery (1 pastel), Marc Ronet (1 drawing and 2 paintings) and Arthur Van Hecke (1 still life) appear here. Several of these artists have had monographic exhibitions at La Piscine and the large canvas by Marc Ronet that is offered to us today was, for example, recently exhibited as part of the tribute that we paid to the artist on the occasion of the significant donation that he, his wife and children made to the museum in 2023.
As La Piscine prepares to pay tribute to Eugène Dodeigne in a vast and unprecedented retrospective exhibition, it seemed reasonable and very fitting to reveal the entirety of this donation while respecting the donors’ wish to remain anonymous.
Apart from the stakeholders of the Roubaix Group, this collection benefits from a superb set of expressionist ceramics by Pierre Amourette, which beautifully shows off one of the strong areas of the museum’s project, that is very committed to the presentation of contemporary clay work. It is therefore the particularly open-minded and inquisitive attitude of a couple that is very devoted to their quest for artistic perfection, revealing this portrait made up of works of art which will surely convey some genuine emotion.
Curator: Adèle Taillefait, curator of the fine arts collections, and Karine Lacquemant, curator of the applied arts collections, La Piscine – André Diligent museum of art and industry, with the assistance of Germain Hirselj, art historian.
The scenographywas completed thanks to the generous support of Tollens paint.
Preview on Friday 11 October 2024 from 6pm.
