In order to offer a fresh perspective on the permanent works housed in Avignon, the Lambert Collection is now opening its spaces at the Hôtel de Caumont on a permanent basis. The rooms host monographic presentations of artists or highlight key periods in the history of contemporary art, with a rotation throughout the year.

Each of these recurring events highlights the richness of this Avignon collection, which is unique in Europe, and breathes new life into it, fuelling a constantly renewed curiosity for the Lambert Collection and its masterpieces, which can be revisited at any time. The collection of works acquired by the art dealer and collector Yvon Lambert tells the complex story of art in the 1980s. 

This pivotal period, marked by profound aesthetic, political, ideological and social upheavals — not unlike our contemporary lives — appears to be a moment of reaffirmation of the power of the image. 

During this period, creation oscillated between a return to the original form of art—through painting—and a critique of the very originality of the work via media linked to reproducibility: photography, video, screen printing, etc.

This context has sparked a range of sensitive reactions and encourages us to develop new ways of conceiving the art system and the works that result from it, more than 80 of which are brought together here in the rooms of the Hôtel de Caumont. 

Among the artists featured are David Armstrong, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jean-Charles Blais, Christian Boltanski, Sarah Charlesworth, Francesco Clemente, Robert Combas, Nan Goldin, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Bruce Nauman, Andres Serrano, Haim Steinbach, Jana Sterbak, and others.