Fondation Maeght: Summer 2026

The 2026 summer season at the Fondation Maeght includes two solo exhibitions: Ellsworth Kelly: At the Edge of the Water and Peter Knapp: The Era of Courrèges. In the galleries of the historic building, Ellsworth Kelly: At the Edge of the Water, explores the presence of water in the artist’s work, something that was a lesser known but formative influence on Kelly’s life and work. Kelly had a long and deep connection to the Fondation Maeght, beginning with the Allied landings in 1944, which he was part of, and returning to France on the G.I. Bill in 1948. He started painting immediately and soon after exhibited at the Galerie Maeght in Paris, becoming lifelong friends with Adrien Maeght, often spending time at the family home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence.

The show, curated by Éric de Chassey, a leading specialist of Kelly’s work, in close collaboration with the Ellsworth Kelly Studio, offers new insight into Kelly’s ways of seeing and his process. “Liquid elements in particular captivated his attention throughout his life, giving rise to observational drawings, abstract paintings and sculptures, as well as collages whose forms emerge from specific experiences of vision at the water’s edge,” writes the curator. Kelly was often seeking out places to live that were near bodies of water: oceans, seas rivers and estuaries such as Belle-Île in Brittany, the Ile Saint-Louis in Paris, the Côte d’Azur, as well as Coenties Slip in New York.

Water is never overtly represented in works on view, except for the postcard collages, some drawings and photographs, rather, he distills and translas his perception of water, the play of light, its patterning and movement. “For Kelly, waterscapes constituted an inexhaustible source of visual paradox: a planar surface endowed with spatial complexity, stillness perpetually in motion; a vast expanse suggesting infinity yet bounded by edges,” writes de Chassy. The exhibition brings together more than 100 works, from monumental paintings and sculptures to intimate, postcard-scale formats. Many of the pieces have never previously been shown, including several collages and drawings from the artist’s studio. The exhibition also presents a large-scale installation from 1992 titled Blue Floor Panel for Leo, which has recently been restored and is here presented on the floor in the Salle de Mairie. This work was originally presented at Leo Castelli in New York. Another unique opportunity is to see an extensive archive of Kelly’s postcard collages that often merge human forms with landscapes and water.

Peter Knapp: The Era of Courrèges blends art and fashion with a series of photographs that capture an era. Curated by the photographer himself, who was a close friend of André Courrèges and the Maeght family, the exhibition presents black and white photographs that document a revolutionary collection that Courrèges released in 1965, and which was known as the ‘Courrèges bomb’. The collection was rooted in architecture, structured forms that were shaping the female silhouette to new, modern rules. Peter Knapp photographed the collection for the March 1965 issue of ELLE, and this photoshoot forms the heart of the exhibition including three-large-scale prints. The FOndation Maeght was inaugurated in 1964, a year before this collection was released. It was a time of freedome and creativity in France and at the Fondation, with artists such as Merce Cunningham and Courrèges himself, who spent time there.

In addition to the exhibitions, the Fondation Maeght presents an “American season” with concerts (Duke Ellington, John Cage, Philip Glass, etc.), performances and meetings around American creation.

Ellsworth Kelly: At the Edge of the Water is on view through November 15, 2026

Peter Knapp: The Era of Courrèges is on view through November 1, 2026.

Fondation Maeght

@fondationmaeght