Art Monte-Carlo 2026

29 April - 1 May

Grimaldi Forum, Monte-Carlo

Tracing the classical tradition of nature across five centuries, from the Old Masters to the present day.

The core of the display, ‘Apollo and Daphne’ by Nicolas Poussin, is an important early work from the artist’s formative years in Rome, presented to coincide with ‘Le Sentiment de la Nature’, currently on view at the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco.

The selection from the modern period includes Yves Klein’s RP2 Grenoble – a topographic rendering of the city rendered in his signature International Klein Blue. A large installation work by Giulio Paolini, ‘Casa di Lucrezio’, refigures classical forms, prompting the viewer to consider their own relationship with the ancient world as captured through sculptural fragments. Paolini was one of the leading figures of the Arte Provera movement, which pioneered the use of found materials.

A small earth-toned landscape by Giorgio Morandi is rendered in impasto, echoing the the work of Cézanne, and the ordered naturalism of the classical tradition.

The display includes contemporary works; with Damien Hirst’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue’ holding butterflies in suspension above a synthetic ground, alluding to the delicate balance between the man-made and the natural.

A deeply hued series of ‘Bleu Monochrome’ works by Monegasque artist Philippe Pastor completes the selection, rendered with natural pigments, placing the artist’s relationship with the environment at the very core of his practice.

Works

• Apollo and Daphne (Apollo Chasing a Nymph), Nicholas Poussin, 1625–26