INVITATION TO THE OPENING FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12 AT 6 PM OF THE NEW GROUP EXHIBITION: "25 YEARS OF ACQUISITIONS AT THE MUSEUM"

MULHOUSE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
4 place Guillaume Tell, 68100 Mulhouse, FRANCE 
Web / Mail / TEL : +33 3 89 33 78 10
Opening hours: free admission every day (except Tuesdays and public holidays) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

Founded in 1864 by the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse, the Museum of Fine Arts has been housed in the Villa Steinbach since 1985. Built in 1788 by manufacturer Jean VETTER, this beautiful mansion was acquired by industrialist Georges STEINBACH (1840). His heirs donated the Villa Steinbach to the SIM (1894), which added a side wing (1924). Today, it is municipally owned and is one of the most beautiful residences of the 18th century.

Acquiring works is one of the fundamental missions of a museum:

The acquisition policy follows a guiding principle to preserve the coherence of the collection. This may involve filling gaps or expanding certain areas of the ancient and modern art collection, but also preserving memory and supporting the local art scene. An annual budget is allocated to museum acquisitions by its governing body (in this case, the City of Mulhouse, with financial assistance from the State and the Region in some cases). In addition to expensive purchases from antique dealers, galleries, private individuals, artists, or at public auction, there are also gifts (manual donations, notarized donations, and bequests). The selected objects are removed from the market to become public property and inalienable. Over the past 25 years, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Mulhouse has added more than 300 works from various fields (drawings, engravings, paintings, photographs, and sculptures) to its collection. These are works by artists from the 19th to the 21st century, mainly from the Haut-Rhin region or active in this area.
This exhibition is also a tribute to the many donors (collectors, artists, or heirs) who have given one or more works to the museum, confident that they will be preserved in good condition for future generations.

– THE MUSEUM'S ACQUISITIONS IN A FEW FIGURES:

Since 2000, around 340 works by 86 artists have been acquired, and this exhibition presents 93 works, including 46 paintings, 22 graphic artworks, 5 sculptures, and 20 photographs.

Many thanks to the entire museum team, and in particular to Mr. Joël Delaine, the former curator, and Ms. Isabelle Dubois-Brinkmann, the new curator, for presenting my work: "Mayan Diary #100," acrylic painting on Plexiglas from 2010, 1.40 x 1.40 m, acquired during my solo exhibition: Mayan Diary [April 9 - May 29, 2011]

– ABOUT "MAYAN DIARY #100"

Jean-Pierre Sergent studied architecture in Strasbourg and painting at the Beaux-Arts in Besançon. After working in Montreal and then New York between 1991 and 2004, he settled in Besançon. In his solo exhibition at the Musée de Mulhouse in 2011, he presented twenty panels from his Mayan Diary series, created between 1999 and 2010. This series consists of 170 acrylic paintings of the same square format (105 x 105 cm), screen-printed on the back of Plexiglas, which can be used to create monumental modular wall installations. The series has been exhibited in several galleries and cultural centers in New York. His references, gathered during his travels and encounters, are syncretic. He mixes images that refer to various cultures (shamanism, Japanese manga, Hindu Kundalini pop art, erotic comics). In this painting, the blue and black rectangular frame delimits a window where abstract motifs and a pixel grid are superimposed in contrast.

–  DOWNLOAD THE PDF OF THE EXHIBITION

– VISUALS OF THE EXHIBITED ART WORK IN-SITU

- 1, “Mayan Diary #100,” 2010, acrylic paint screen-printed on Plexiglas, 1.40 x 1.40 m
- 2 - 5, “Mayan Diary #100,” in-situ in the museum stairs, photos taken by artist Simone Adou during the opening reception on Friday, December 12, 2025