Philippe Méaille (French; born 27 April 1973) is a French Contemporary Art Collector. Méaille is the founder and president of the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art. He owns the world's largest collection of Art & Language works
Video Philippe Méaille
Early life
After graduating from the Lycée Vauban in Pontoise, Méaille was admitted to Paris Descartes University of Pharmacy. Upon his arrival in in Paris, he began his art collection by purchasing contemporary artworks.
Maps Philippe Méaille
Contemporary art collector
In 1994, he first met the work of the artists group Art & Language. The former galerist Eric Fabre will introduce Méaille to the artists some years later. Méaille acquire a large group of works from the Swiss Rothschild Bank in 1996. These works had been bought 25 years earlier from the Zurich galerist Bruno Bischofberger during the first retrospective of Art & Language he organized in 1972. Méaille tells the extraordinary dimension of this acquisition :
The editions were complete, so I had to decide if I would buy 50 or 100 examples of the same work [...] Even if I had not intended to buy the entire collection then, it was very easy to understand that a true treasure was lying on the Bank's conference table. There were Artist's Books in very small editions, lithographs, certificates for paintings and unique works [...] There was almost exhaustive representation of Art &Language object categories on the table; from lithographs to photostats to printed books, and also ready-mades of Factual Indiscernibles [...] which turn the viewer into an active performer in an event akin to an happening, to textworks where the artists investigate the possibility of a new genre - neither litterature nor theory but art.
Méaille, during the next 15 years goes on, and with the help of the artists, assembles what is known to be the world largest collection of Art & Language works.
Public life
In 2000 he installs his collection in the Château de la Bainerie (Tiercé), a former summer camp of the city of Argenteuil. Then the collection of Art & Language works will be spread all over the 50 000 square feet of the château. Méaille organizes a public exhibition with Nantes school of Beaux-arts in 2006. In 2011, Méaille announce the long term loan of 800 works of Art & Language to the MACBA. A retrospective is planned to take place at the museum in 2014,.
In 2014, Jill Silverman van Coenegrachts becomes the curator of the collection and introduce Méaille to Bernard Jordan to organize a serie of Art & Language exhibitions.
In 2014-2015, the MACBA organizes a major retrospective of the group Art & Language, Art & Language uncompleted: The Philippe Méaille Collection, with the works loaned by Méaille,, that brings to light the archaeological perspective with which the Collection [Méaille] was assembled.
In 2015, Méaille signs a long term lease of 25 years for the Château de Montsoreau (Loire valley) with the regional department of the Maine-et-Loire. He then founded and become president of the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art, where approximately 80 works of his collection are permanently exhibited.
In 2017, at the end of the contract with MACBA and with the recent events in Catalonia, Méaille decides not to renew it and to repatriate his collection to the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art. He will state of political instability and security reasons , MACBA will protest of this decision and will release a statement that the security of the works was not compromised,.
Books
- Silverman van Coenegrachts, Jill (2014). Made in Zurich - Selected Editions - 1965-1972 Art & Language. Paris. ISBN 978-3-00-047269-5. </ref>
- Guerra, Carles (2014). Art & language uncompleted : the Philippe Méaille Collection. Barcelona: Museu d'Art Contemporani Barcelona. p. 264. ISBN 978-84-92505-52-4. </ref>
- Matthew Jesse, Jackson (2018). Art & language Reality (Dark) Fragments (Light) Philippe Méaille Collection. Montsoreau: Château de Montsoreau-Museum of contemporary Art. p. 176. ISBN 978-2955-791721. </ref>
Notes et références
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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