The current exhibition at L’Artistique takes a closer look at the group of friends and artists who defined Nice’s place in the international art world.
Two men’s paths crossed at La Colombe d’Or in Saint-Paul in the 1960s, and it would change the course of contemporary art history. André Verdet had already established himself as a multidisciplinary artist. Jean Ferrero was an emerging photographer at the time. Their meeting led to a lifelong friendship and would ultimately define Nice’s place in the international art world. André, Jean et les Autres, the current exhibition at L’Artistique, narrates the story of these two pivotal figures in the Côte d’Azur’s mid-20th-century art scene. It also illustrates their shared passion for the artists who defined and cross-pollinated the École de Nice and New Realism. The show, which unites both men’s individual collections, runs through 31 July 2026.
Verdet’s 2001 donation to Saint-Paul de Vence anchors one side of this dialogue, while Jean Ferrero’s 2014 gift to Nice – rooted in his evolution from photographer to gallerist – forms the other. Over a hundred paintings, sculptures, and ceramics feature the artists who shared their friendship: Arman, Ben, César, Gilli, Farhi, Malaval, Dolla, Venet and many other names that have become synonymous with the global 20th century art movement made in Nice. Photographs from those years also bear witness to these connections.
Verdet’s and Ferrero’s own works find their place in this exhibition as well. Verdet’s signature silhouettes and “idoles” (elongated figures incorporating found objects) hang alongside collaborative pieces like a two-handed work with Arman from the late 1950s. Highlights include Verdet’s colourful lumière enfouie (nylon assemblages), his 1961 early painting from the Ferrero donation, and oblitérations by Sacha Sosno (one red from Verdet’s collection, one black from Ferrero’s). Tributes to César abound, evoking the sculptor’s compressions, while Arman’s 1960 Allure and multicoloured Estafette by Ben nod to the New Realists who frequented Ferrero’s gallery. And finally, some of Ferrero’s own photography rounds out the retrospective.
The same names surface again and again across both collections – proof, as curator Éric Léon notes, that Verdet and Ferrero were always moving in the same circles.
Photos courtesy and © Jeanpierre Paringaux
The two men’s first meeting at La Colombe d’Or was no accident. The emblematic restaurant had long since been a favourite spot among painters, thanks to its arrangement: artists were offered room and board in exchange for art, and the walls were soon covered with works by Braque, Léger, Chagall, Calder, Matisse and Picasso. Working as a photographer at the time, Ferrero came to document its remarkable cast of patrons.
For more than half a century, Verdet was the polymath connector of Saint-Paul de Vence, where he championed painters and writers through books, catalogues, poetry, and his own multifaceted practice in painting, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics, becoming the vital link between Saint-Paul-de-Vence and some of the greatest contemporaneous artists.
Despite the 18-year age gap, they quickly forged a strong friendship, rooted in their shared love for the arts and a quick-witted tongue. Even though Jean Ferrero was himself drawn to painting, he pivoted his career to gallerist. By 1973, Ferrero mounted Verdet’s retrospective at his gallery in Nice, with Verdet reciprocating the following year at Saint-Paul’s municipal museum.
In the decades that followed, both men acquired substantial collections of the École de Nice artists, which they eventually donated to the towns they held dear: André Verdet in 2001 to Saint-Paul-de-Vence and Jean Ferrero to Nice in 2014. Given the close ties that bound André and Jean, it was only natural that these two collections should come together in a single exhibition.
This narrative of friendships forged in the 1960s and 1970s, with Verdet’s close connections with masters and Ferrero’s lens capturing the era’s spirit, reveals Nice’s artistic heritage and its contribution to the art world at large. But more than that, it is an intimate window into the personal bond between two like-minded men without whom Niçois artists might not have had the spotlight trained on them in such a significant way.
VISITOR INFORMATION
André, Jean et les Autres | L’Artistique, Nice
In collaboration with Ville de Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm | Free admission
More info: https://www.nice.fr/agenda/andre-jean-et-les-autres/#info
VENUE DETAILS
L’Artistique – Centre d’Arts et de Culture – Espace Ferrero
27 boulevard Dubouchage
06000 Nice
Tel: +33 (0)4 97 13 47 70
PHOTO CREDITS
- All photos and images courtesy Ville de Nice, except those by Jeanpierre Paringaux
- Lead image Verdet et Arman © Ferrero
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