On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death, the Fine Arts Museum paid tribute to Gustave-Adolphe Mossa, a man of multiple talents and sometimes strange works.
This retrospective of the famous Niçois artist’s work presented his emblematic symbolist paintings and watercolors but also offered a new perspective on his sometimes overlooked work in other areas. His role as curator of the Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum from 1926 to 1971 was also highlighted, as he did much for the museum.
A Niçois deeply attached to his heritage, Gustave-Adolphe Mossa alternately played the roles of historian, archaeologist, linguist, and author of plays in Niçard. He is also known for his Carnival float models, a beloved festival for the people of Nice. Enthusiastic about traditions, he revived local costumes in a folk dance group that sometimes rehearsed at the Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum, a museum he directed with enthusiasm and passion.
This exhibition offered a journey revealing this creator’s many talents in a new light, at the confluence of international artistic movements and the regional culture to which he remained attached throughout his life.
Works and views of the exhibition
1905, oil on canvas, 80 x 63 cm
N.Mba 3268, Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum, Nice
Bequest of Mr. Gustave-Adolphe Mossa in 1972
Interview
On the occasion of the Gustave-Adolphe Mossa exhibition at the Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum, discover an exclusive interview conducted by Les éditions Gilletta with Johanne Lindskog, Director and Curator of the exhibition.
Transcription of the video in english
Jules Chéret Fine Arts Museum.
Interview with Johanne Lindskog, Director and Exhibition Curator
Gilletta Editions (00:00) A magnificent venue, the Fine Arts Museum in Nice. A spectacular work, that of Gustave-Adolphe Mossa. An immense joy, that of Gilletta Editions, to participate in this beautiful project through a catalogue that will be published soon. Thank you, Joëlle, for welcoming us. A small question about this incredible work of Gustave-Adolphe Mossa. Why, how, where did the idea come to you?
Johanne Lindskog (00:26) We have a very important collection of works by Gustave-Adolphe Mossa in the museum, since he was a Nice-based artist and was the curator of his museum for 45 years. About two years ago, we realized that it would be 50 years since his death in 2021. We thought it was time to do a major retrospective of his work.
Gilletta Editions (00:51) What do you like most about the exhibition, about its setup? And then, a related question: how long does it take to set up an exhibition, specifically this one?
Johanne Lindskog (01:01) This exhibition required one year of work. There were three of us working on the subject. Actually, an exhibition of this size could take a little more time, but we did it in one year. What is absolutely exciting about an exhibition when you embark on discovering an artist? I think it’s the investigation, I think it’s the treasure hunt to find the works, because we really have to reach out to very diverse networks, start from publications to select the works we want to show, and then go look for them. Each time, we encounter artworks, but we also encounter personalities who are very attached to these works, who are the collectors. So, it’s both an encounter with the works and also a lot, lot of human encounters.
Gilletta Editions (01:59) A quick focus on your favorite work, Johanne.
Johanne Lindskog (02:03) Yes, I brought you in front of this work entitled “The Mermaid Fisher,” which is a work that I knew through publications, but which I fell in love with when discovering it in real life at a private collector’s place. And this really shows how Mossa used Nice and its immediate environment as a backdrop for absolutely fantastic scenes.
Gilletta Editions (02:29) Here we are in front of the work created by four hands between Gustave-Adolf Mossa and Jean Gilletta. What can be said about this work, this collaboration?
Johanne Lindskog (02:38) First of all, these are completely unpublished or almost unpublished works that we discovered thanks to Gilletta Editions, because miraculously appeared in one of their newsletters these plates, which are therefore photographic plates enhanced with gouache and ink, and a type of work that we had never seen in our research on Gustave-Adolphe Mossa. And so, by doing research with Gilletta Editions, we realized that there were actually quite a few of them. So, we did a comparison work with the finalized carnival float models by Gustave-Adolphe Mossa and we realized that it was preparatory work. So, preparatory work, but we didn’t imagine that it could be done with four hands. So for us, this was also an important discovery in his work on the carnival. In reality, we had Jean Gilletta taking his first photos and Gustave Adolphe using them as a support to imagine how the future floats would interact with the public and in the carnival space. And so, it’s a quite particular and seemingly technique that Mossa only used in this context. These are really interesting works in terms of the network of relationships and work of Gustave-Adolphe Mossa, but also his own technique to achieve these floats that paraded like this and enchanted the city of Nice for over 60 years.
The Catalogue
Edited by: Johanne Lindskog and Jeanne Pillon
Published by: Gilletta Editions
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of the Niçois artist and curator Gustave-Adolphe Mossa, this book presents his emblematic symbolist paintings and watercolors, which prefigure surrealism and heroic fantasy, paintings of surprising virtuosity, sometimes licentious subjects.
