Éric Chassey de Chassey

Éric de Chassey (born 1965 in Pittsburgh) is an art historian, designer and organizer of artistic programs (visual arts, contemporary music, cinema, literature and debates) and head of cultural institutions. He has been Director of the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici since September 2009. He is also professor of contemporary art history (on secondment) at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon. An alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure de la rue d'Ulm (1986), he obtained his doctorate (1994) and then his habilitation to direct research (1999) in contemporary art history at the Université Paris IV-Sorbonne), before becoming lecturer in art history at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (1996-1999) and professor of art history at the Université François-Rabelais de Tours (1999-2012). He was a member of the Institut Universitaire de France from 2004 to 2009 and academic advisor to the independent label Kung Fu Fighting Recording from 1998 to 2001. During his first two terms as Director of the Académie de France in Rome, he carried out an in-depth reform of the institution, which notably resulted in an overhaul of the statutory decree in 2012 and a reform of the residencies (fellows, laureates, Nouveau Prix de Rome, guests) in 2013. In 2015, he will publish Andrzej Wróblewski recto/verso (Warsaw Museum of Modern Art - Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid) and L'abstraction, avec ou sans raisons (Gallimard), will curate the exhibition Jean-Luc Moulène - Surjonctions at Villa Medici and co-direct the colloquium Relectures postcoloniales des échanges artistiques et culturels entre Europe et Maghreb (Algérie, France, Italie, Maroc et Tunisie) - 18e-21e siècles (Paris, Rome, Tunis). His work as an art historian has focused on one cultural area - the United States - and one theme - abstract art. But he has also carried out research on the work of Matisse, the history of trans-national artistic relations, photography, the phenomena of tradition and resistance in reception, and the links between the work of art and visual culture and the society in which it is embedded, from the early 20th century to the present day. His research has led to publications, symposia and exhibitions. He has published books and essays on twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, including La violence décorative: Matisse et les États-Unis (Jacqueline Chambon, 1998); La peinture efficace. Une histoire de l'abstraction aux États-Unis, 1910-1960 (Gallimard, 2001); Pascal Pinaud, Transpainting (Mamco, 2003); Eugène Leroy, Autoportrait (Gallimard, 2004); Platitudes. Une histoire de la photographie plate (Gallimard, 2006 - Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2009); Olivier Debré, monographie (Expressions contemporaines, 2007); Marcia Hafif, catalog raisonné de l'œuvre jusqu'en 1969 (Mamco, 2010); Pour l'Histoire de l'Art (Actes Sud, 2011). He has also curated numerous group exhibitions, including Abstraction-Abstractions: Géométries provisoires (Saint-Étienne, Musée d'art moderne, 1997, in collaboration with Camille Morineau); [Corps] Social (Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, 1999); Made in USA: L'art américain de 1908 à 1948 (Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts; Rennes, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Montpellier, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2001-2002); Kelly-Matisse. Dessins de plantes (Paris, Centre Pompidou; Saint Louis Art Museum, 2002, in collaboration with Rémi Labrusse); Stroll On!







Aspects de l'abstraction en Grande-Bretagne dans les années soixante, 1959-1967 (Geneva, Mamco, 2005-2006); Repartir à zéro, comme si la peinture n'avait jamais existé,1945-1949 (Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2008-2009, in collaboration with Sylvie Ramond); Alex Katz: An American Way of Seeing (Tampere, Sara Hilden Museum; Grenoble, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Kleve, Museum Kurhaus, 2009); Ils ont regardé Matisse. Abstract receptions of Matisse, 1948-1968 (Le Cateau-Cambrésis, Musée Matisse, 2009, in collaboration with Émilie Ovaere); La pesanteur et la grâce. Abstractions et spiritualité (Paris, Collège des Bernardins; Rome, Villa Medici, 2010-2011); Les mutants, Adel Abdessemed, Stephen Dean, Ellen Gallagher, Adrian Paci, Djamel Tatah (Rome, Villa Medici, 2010); Europunk. Visual punk culture in Europe, 1976-1980 (Geneva, Mamco 2010-2011; Rome, Villa Medici, 2011; Charleroi, BPS, 2011-2012; Paris, Cité de la musique, 2013-2014); Poussin et Moïse. Du dessin à la tapisserie (Rome, Villa Medici, 2011, in collaboration with Marc Bayard and Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée); Marie Cool Fabio Balducci - Live & Obscure (Rome, Villa Medici, 2011); Éric Poitevin. Photographies (Rome, Villa Medici, 2011-2012); Les Sujets de l'abstraction (1946-1962), 101 Chefs-d'œuvre de la Fondation Gandur pour l'Art, Genève (Montpellier, Musée Fabre, 2011-2012, in collaboration with the Fondation Gandur pour l'Art and the Musées d'art et d'histoire de la Ville de Genève); Jean-Marc Bustamante / Pieter Jansz Saenredam (Rome, Villa Medici, 2012); Camminando - Claire Chevrier (Rome, Villa Medici, 2012); Soulages XXIe siècle (Rome, Villa Medici, 2013); Djamel Tatah (Alger, Mama, 2013; Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght, 2013-2014); Simon Hantaï (Rome, Villa Medici, 2013-2014); La peinture ou Comment s'en débarrasser (Rome, Villa Medici, 2014); Jean-Luc Moulène. Once upon a time (Rome, Villa Medici, 2015). He has organized international conferences: Autour de Supports/Surfaces (Paris, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, 1998); Les utopies de l'abstraction (Tours, Université François-Rabelais , 2005, in collaboration with Pascal Rousseau); Repartir à zéro. Arts, culture et politique dans l'immédiate après-seconde guerre mondiale (1945-1949) (Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 2009, in collaboration with Jean Kempf); Pierre Soulages (Paris, Centre Pompidou, 2010); Andrzej Wróblewski - From Within / From Without (Warsaw, Museum of Modern Art, 2013).

2009-2015