The Espace de l’Art Concret and its donors
Opened in 1990, the eac. is a collective adventure that set out to place art at the heart of everyday life. It owes its creation to the combined will of two discerning Swiss collectors, Sybil Albers and Gottfried Honegger, and of the Mayor of Mouans-Sartoux from 1974 to 2015, André Aschieri, who understood and championed an artistic and cultural project centred on teaching people how to look.
The eac.'s story spans more than thirty years and explores many territories.
From the outset, the choice of the name "espace de l'art concret" (space for concrete art) showed a wish to stand apart from the traditional museum. The venue chose to put visual education and openness to the widest possible audience at the centre of its work, well before these missions became priorities for museum institutions.
The eac. carries out its artistic, cultural and educational work through three complementary missions:
• A mission to conserve and promote the Albers-Honegger collection (nearly 900 works);
• A research mission, built around temporary exhibitions and artist residencies that create links between works in the collection and contemporary creation;
• An educational mission through mediation in the exhibitions and hands-on art workshops.
-Philippe-Chancel.avif)
For ten years, from 1990 to 2000, Sybil Albers and Gottfried Honegger generously made their collection available, with a constant commitment to visual education and to spreading the thought-provoking concrete art movement. They then felt the need to take their commitment further through an act of great generosity, choosing in the early 2000s to donate their collection to the French State. The Albers-Honegger Donation thus brings together the works they gave, together with the donations of Aurelie Nemours and Gilbert Brownstone and gifts from several other artists. The collection is listed in the inventory of the CNAP – Centre national des arts plastiques and is entirely on long-term loan to the Espace de l’Art Concret.
True to the universalist spirit of concrete art, the collectors did not limit their collection to purely geometric works. They broadened its scope by reflecting on the most striking, sometimes surprising, developments of the 20th century, making their collection a work in its own right. It perfectly reflects the visionary spirit of the collector couple, who chose to explore the rigorous principles of concrete art in the light of the most radical artistic practices of the second half of the 20th century.
Finally, Sybil Albers and Gottfried Honegger assembled an exceptional collection of design, especially seating (Alvar Aalto's Paimio armchair, Marcel Breuer's Wassily armchair, Frank O. Gehry's Wiggle side chair, Verner Panton's Panton chair...), a striking testimony to the democratic conception of art championed by the founders of this movement, with its collective and social implications.
Gottfried Honegger (1917–2016) and Sybil Albers (1935–2019), the founders and donors of the eac., passed on their commitment and vision to the generations that followed. This continuity is reflected today in the presence of their heirs on the board of directors, Lucas Albers and Camil Hesse, who help keep alive and carry forward the project begun by those who came before them.
