les Abattoirs
76 allées Charles-de-Fitte
31300 Toulouse - France

+33 (0)5 62 48 58 00 (reception)
+33 (0)5 34 51 10 60 (recorded information)

> Museum map

Getting Here :

- By metro : "Saint-Cyprien République"

- By bus : n°1, "les Abattoirs"

- By car : pay parking close to the metro station
2 handicap parking spaces rue Charles Malpel

Opening Hours :

> Agenda

Free admission the first Sunday of each month.

- The media library

Open Wenesday to Saturday of 2pm to 6pm.

Tel : +33 (0)5 62 48 58 08
mediatheque@lesabattoirs.org

- The Bookshop

Open Wenesday to Sunday of 10am to 7pm.

Tel : +33 (0)5 62 48 57 48
libabatt@club-internet.fr

- The Restaurant "L'Hémicycle"

Tel : +33 (0)5 62 87 73 06
> l'hémicycle

Presentation

The modern and contemporary art museum les Abattoirs is a new kind of establishment which offers many activities.

Museography - The museum’s vocation is the conservation and the enlargment of the collection, which is the privileged medium for cultural and educational actions. The temporary exhibitions promote discovery, innovation and research. Exhibitions are also organised with the collaboration of the region’s museums and art centres.

Research is an important part of the museum’s missions; It includes the collection’s archiving, the conservation and management of photographic reproductions.. Also, the collection is now available for consultation on our website as well as a database dedicated to regional artists and cultural events.

The library is specialised in 20th and 21st century art and has over 17 000 multimedia documents that can be consulted onsite. It features a children’s library, a multimedia room, a main reading room and a children’s reading room. There are several workshops each week and school groups are welcome.

The education programmes offer workshops and guided tours to children, families, students, teachers, adults and community groups.

Partnerships with the actors of contemporary creation in the whole Midi-Pyrénées region have woven a true contemporary art network materialised by actions such as artist residencies, co-editions, partnerships for the production of artworks, acquisitions…

The modern art collection

Centred on artists working since the 1950’s, it illustrates many artistic movements born after the second world war in Europe (France, Italy and Spain) as well as in Japan and in the United States: abstract expressionism, lyrical abstraction, Art Brut, informal art, Cobra, Gutai, Spatialism, Arte povera and Trans avant garde, Figuration libre…
The donation and deposit of some 50 works from the Anthony Denney collection in 1994, as well as the deposit in 1999 of 393 works from the Daniel Cordier collection by the national Museum of Modern Art-Centre Georges Pompidou bring, by the quality of the works and the artistic movements represented, a true originality and a strong historical base to the collection.

The collection of the photographer Anthony Denney (1913-1990) consists mostly of paintings from the 1950’s and 60’s, by significant artists such as Appel, Burri, Dubuffet, Fontana, Francis, Mathieu, Riopelle, SAURA, Tàpies, Vasarely and the japanese artists of the Gutai group.

The collection of Daniel Cordier (born in 1920) shows the choices of a passionate art lover covering three generations of artists among whom one can name : Arman, Bellmer, Brassaï, César, Chaissac, Combas, Dado, Dewasne, Dubuffet, Duchamp, Fahlstrom, Hantaï, Hartung, Le Gac, Mapplethorpe, Michaux, Morris, Rauschenberg, Réquichot andViallat, as well as other singular artists

The contemporary art collection

The contemporary art collection is constituted of several groups of works that bring together the modern art collection and open perspectives on today’s creation.
The 1970’s and 80’s are notably represented by French artists who testify the diversity of positions concerning modernity with sometimes a strong critical dimension towards the models of art history and art diffusion : Filliou, Morellet, Leccia, Bazile Bustamente, Présence-Panchounette, Gina Pane. Groupings have also been constituted from movements such as Support-Surface (Viallat, Dezeuze), Figuration libre (Combas, Di Rosa) or the Italian Trans avant garde.

The international scene is present with works by On Kawara, Art and Language, Bernd Lohaus or Alfredo Jaar, but also with important works by artists from the Italian and Spanish scenes : Mario Merz, Allighiero Boetti, Miquel Barcelò, Antoni Tapiès, who evoke the specific vitality of contemporary art in southern Europe. This specificity is completed by the presence of artists from the Midi-Pyrénées scene (Hortala, Lamy, Gaspari, Parant, Musée Khombôl) and young emerging artists (Sentou, Maisongrande, Boyer).

The PICASSO curtain

Unique and spectacular, La dépouille de Minotaure en costume d’Arlequin, conceived by Pablo Picasso and Luis Fernandez in 1936, is an emblematic work that unveils the post second world war period covered by the modern art collection in which Spanish art is widely represented. This large stage backdrop was realised for "le 14 juillet", a play by Romain Rolland performed at Le théatre du peuple the 14th of July 1936. This work has been restored thanks to the sponsorship of the BNP bank and the help of l’Aérospatiale. Because of its fragility it is shown to the public only 6 months per year.

La Dépouille du Minotaure en costume d’arlequin, 1936
Stage backdrop for the Théatre du Peuple
Also known as “ rideau de scène pour le Quatorze-Juillet” by Romain Rolland
Glue tempera on écru cotton canvas, 830 x 1325 cm