Denis Coutagne
Conservator in chief of the Granet Museum, Aix-en-Provence

Biography

Denis Coutagne, Curator in Chief of the Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence, was born on 5 March 1947 in Ugine, Savoie, France.
• He studied in Grenoble, Lyon and Paris (Paris IV Sorbonne). The subject of his university thesis was Abstraction in painting as a place for reflection on the relationship of art and philosophy in aesthetic speech (the transition from figurative to abstract from Cézanne to Mondrian, Kazimir Malevitch and Wassily Kandinsky in the light of Emmanuel Kant and Friedrich Hegel). He studied philosophy and art history together, obtaining a master's degree in philosophy in 1972. In 1974 he passed the recruitment examination for curators of national museums, and in 1977 was appointed to the post of manager of museums in Besançon, Doubs. He taught art history (19th and 20th century Painting) at Luminy School of Architecture, Marseille, from 1993 to 1997.
• Since 1980 he has managed the Granet Museum. His goal has been to complete the renovation of the museum and open it to 20th century art, to bring international recognition to François-Marius Granet in the history of art and to make Aix-en-Provence into a Cézanne centre.
The renovation of the museum will be completed in 2005. The exhibition space has been increased from 1,000 to 4,000 square meters, and a scientific study of all the collections has been undertaken, culminating in a reference document called "The Scientific and Cultural Program of the Granet Museum". This restructuring has demanded strong collaboration between the institutions in charge of the museum, the contracting authority (delegate authority, SEMEPA) and the prime contractors (architects Pierre Brotons and Jean-François Bodin).

The Granet Museum has been the site of three major exhibitions:

• 1984: François-Marius Granet, the watercolorist of Paris and Versailles
• 1988: François-Marius Granet, the painter of Provence
• 1972: François-Marius Granet, the painter of Rome

The Granet Museum has acquired paintings by Maurice Estève, André Masson, Karl Hartung, and works from the collection From Cézanne to Giacometti (including Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Bram van Velde, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger and Paul Cézanne).

The Granet Museum has been directly responsible for organizing four Cézanne exhibitions:

• 1982: Cézanne (a twin exhibition with Liège, Belgium)
• 1984: Eight paintings by Paul Cézanne placed by the State in the museum of Aix
• 1990: Cézanne-Sainte-Victoire international exhibition
• 2000: Cézanne au fil de l’eau exhibition

And two major Cézanne events:
• 1996: Rewald-Cézanne international symposium at the Granet Museum
• 1998: Creation of the Paul Cézanne Society

Publications:

Personal publications:

Cézanne, Critérion, 1989
Cézanne en Provence (Cézanne in Provence) (translated into English and Japanese), Assouline, 1995
Le musée intérieur de Julien Green (The interior museum of Julien Green), Granet Museum, 2000 (published in a series of separate articles in Impressions du Musée Granet, 1992-1996)
Michel Forat, présentation du peintre et de son œuvre (Michel Forat, introducing the painter and his work), Granet Museum, 1999
Granet, une vie de peintre (Granet, a painter's life), Granet Museum, Aix 2004-2005

Fiction: La Mosaïque de Démeter (Demeter's Mosaic), Critérion 1985
Vestiges de Dieu (God's remains) (to be published)

Publications with personal participation:

Le Roi René en son temps (King René and his time), Granet Museum, 1981
Cézanne au musée d’Aix (Cézanne at the museum of Aix) (with Bruno Ely), Granet Museum, 1984
Granet, paysages d’Iles de France (Granet, Landscapes of Ile de France), Granet Museum, 1984
Entremont, archéologie celto ligure (circonscription archéologique d'Aix) (Entremont, Celto-Ligurian Archeology – Aix archeological district), Granet Museum, 1988
Cézanne peintre de Rome (Cézanne, the painter of Rome) (with Isabelle Neto), AAMG, 1992
Les sites cézanniens du Pays d’Aix (Cézanne Sites of the Aix Region) (with Bruno Ely), RMN, 1996
Guide des collections du Musée Granet, présentation de 100 chefs-d'œuvre (Guide to the Granet Museum collections, an introduction to 100 masterpieces) (with Bernard Terlay, Bruno Ely and Sylvie Menant), 1999
Atelier Cézanne (Cézanne's Studio) (Paul Cézanne Society), Aix, 2002.
Jas de Bouffan Cézanne (Paul Cézanne Society), Aix, 2004
Jean Marie Sorgues, présentation du peintre et de son œuvre (Jean Marie Sorgues, an introduction to the painter and his work) (with Bruno Ely) Granet Museum, 2003

Exhibition catalogues
Mondzain, Sorgues, Aubrun, Lechenier, Ecole Marchutz, Forat…
Preface to the book Sculpture by Alexandre Maral, introducing the collections of the Granet Museum, 2001
Responsible for the magazine of the Friends of the Granet Museum Impressions du musée Granet (10 issues published to date including historic issues on the history of the museum and its renovation)

Numerous talks in France and abroad (François-Marius Granet, Paul Cézanne, Julien Green)

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

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Denis Coutagne Conservator in chief of the Granet Museum, Aix-en-Provence

Denis Coutagne
Conservator in chief of the Granet Museum, Aix-en-Provence