Francophilia in Florida

“French artists are still confronting the stakes of the art of their time in their work.”

Orlan, Self-Hybridizations, American-Indian 2005-2008, #3 Painting
Portrait of Wash-Ka-Mon-Ya, Fast Dancer, A Warrioe, with Orlan’s photographic portrait, 2005. Digital photography, 152.5 x 124.5 cm

Francophilia in Florida
Martine Buissart

When he heard that I was about to move to Miami, the French artist Joël Hubaut put me in contact with collectors Ruth and Marvin Sackner, who generously opened their doors to me. The discovery of many French artists in their collection and the collectors’ francophilia was the starting point of the concept of this exhibition, at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami. That’s how the concept “Tour de France / Florida,” formed: a view of French contemporary art through the multiple perspectives offered by collectors in Florida by a French curator. The research, the results of which are featured in the catalog, was fascinating, full of unexpected developments and, finally, extremely rich.

The exhibition, which brings together about thirty artistic perspectives, is structured around artists showing groups of works that belong to the same collection, like Christian Boltanski, Joël Hubaut, Hervé Télémaque, and Claude Viallat; but we also emphasize pieces that were never or rarely shown before. To mention only a few, I would praise the enlightened look of Elizabeth Lyman, whose engagement with Claude Viallat’s work permitted a connection to abstract American painting, and Claude-Auguste Douyon’s attachment to his fellow Haitian Hervé Télémaque. Each collection has a specific tone: more paintings here, more pictures or installations there. There is sometimes a concern to contextualize the collection in contemporary art history, while other times the priority is given to emerging practices.  Multiple perspectives reflect the Florida melting pot: it would be risky to conclude that there is a single narrative line through the collections. Some tendencies do emerge: the position of “classical” media, and the relation to writing fostered by theoretical advancements of the twentieth Century (Dada, Fluxus, and others).

Christian Boltanski, Lycée Chases (8) [Chases High School (8)], 1986-1987, Photograph, desk lamp and 54 tin boxes, 109 x 26 x 9 1/2 in. Courtesy the Rubell Family Collection

Step-by-step I met contemporary art professionals from a region that, a decade after the first edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, shows its international ambitions and its desire to become a crossing-point between the US, Latin America and, to a lesser extent, Europe. While the world of galleries and contemporary art museums is still under construction, more and more private collectors are settling down in South Florida. They represent the center of the system, and today most of the important collections are open to the public.

While I was observing these private collections, many of my interlocutors were particularly attached to France. Often relying on deference towards the masters of the twentieth century, this “artistic francophilia” oscillates between a nostalgic approach and the feeling that, despite a modest representation within the international contemporary art market, French artists were still confronting the stakes of the art of their time in their works. Beyond French artists who have lived in Florida, we were uncertain about the actual representation of the French art scene when we started to work on the project. In the end, it was not only the “big names” of internationally acclaimed artists, but also a younger generation of emerging artists that were widely represented. This proves that French artists and artworks increasingly circulate outside of France—certainly much more than French people tend to think.

Tour de France/Florida: Contemporary Artists from France in Florida’s Private Collections is on view from November 9, 2011 to March 18, 2012 at The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum in Florida.