Independent Collectors

Fondation Francès

Created in 2009, the Fondation Francès welcomes art lovers and curious minds, sharing its passion for contemporary art.

Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Tracey Emin The History of Painting, Philip-Lorca Dicorcia Tim ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Tracey Emin The History of Painting, Philip-Lorca Dicorcia Tim ©Fondation Francès

Since its creation in 2009, the Fondation Francès has been showcasing the Francès art contemporary in the setting of an old Senlis house. Since 2023, the Fondation opened a new space to the public in Clichy, a former factory entirely renovated offering a new setting for the collection.

Created by Estelle and Hervé Francès, the eponymous foundation is conceived as a laboratory for critical thinking around a collection of nearly 800 international contemporary works, open to all artistic expressions. Built up as the couple's discoveries unfolded, the collection revealed a common thread - “Human and his excesses” - and became a source of inspiration and firm convictions. Between resistance and generosity, the foundation's primary aim is to promote access to contemporary art, particularly in a region that has long been deprived of it.

In 2024, the foundation celebrates its fifteenth anniversary through a double group exhibition in Clichy named XXH.

Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Gerard Petrus Fieret Loving Laughing, Nobuyoshi Araki Tokyo Comedy, Gérard Gasiorowski La Question, Roy Adzak Growling Female ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Gerard Petrus Fieret Loving Laughing, Nobuyoshi Araki Tokyo Comedy, Gérard Gasiorowski La Question, Roy Adzak Growling Female ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Sophie Muller Tristan, Michaela Spiegel Serie Annorexie, Gerard Petrus Fieret Tomed Girl and Erwin Olaf, The Keyhole 7 ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Sophie Muller Tristan, Michaela Spiegel Serie Annorexie, Gerard Petrus Fieret Tomed Girl and Erwin Olaf, The Keyhole 7 ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Gloria Friedmann The Human Factor, Rashid Johnson Look at me, Larry Clark Teenage Lust, Hans-Peter Feldmann Portrait of Woman with Wounded Blue Eye ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Gloria Friedmann The Human Factor, Rashid Johnson Look at me, Larry Clark Teenage Lust, Hans-Peter Feldmann Portrait of Woman with Wounded Blue Eye ©Fondation Francès
Robert Gligorov, Deposizione (2007) ©Fondation Francès
Robert Gligorov, Deposizione (2007) ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1,2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Agatoak Ronny Kowspi God of Love, Jean Rustin Encore une sale journée, Rashid Johnson Look at me, Sanne Sannes Extase ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1,2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Agatoak Ronny Kowspi God of Love, Jean Rustin Encore une sale journée, Rashid Johnson Look at me, Sanne Sannes Extase ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Gloria Friedmann The Human Factor ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1, 2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Gloria Friedmann The Human Factor ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1,2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Andres Serrano The Other Christ, Terence Koh The Camel Was God The Camel Was Shot ©Fondation Francès
Exhibition XXH Temps 1,2024 Fondation Francès, Clichy: Andres Serrano The Other Christ, Terence Koh The Camel Was God The Camel Was Shot ©Fondation Francès

XXH is an artistic odyssey into the heart of the eXtra-eXtra-Human, a fascinating world where art meets psychoanalysis to unravel the mysteries of the human being. Through a dynamic and provocative collection, the Fondation Francès confronts us with our impulses, desires, and excesses, offering a compelling reflection on identity, mortality, and the struggle between the forces of life and death that drive us. XXH refers to the extra-human, describing the individual, their body, and emotions, but also their sometimes-extreme impulses. XXH questions the complexity of the very experience of the human condition.

XXH is also the title of the Fondation Francès's first retrospective exhibition in 2013, at the Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent. For its fifteenth anniversary, the Foundation naturally wishes to re-examine its collection and its main theme. XXH thus explores every aspect of our human condition, reinvesting essential subjects such as identity, intimacy, spirituality, the fragility of our existence but also violence, war, rebellion, and struggle. XXH exalts the human to the extreme, reflecting the complexity of our existence. Like the collection and its commitments, XXH is the scene of a struggle against indifference, exclusion, and incomprehension. It is the site of a sensitive, open dialogue, turned towards the society, with the artwork as its principal mediator.

©Andres Serrano Piss Christ (1987). Courtesy Collection Francès
©Andres Serrano Piss Christ (1987). Courtesy Collection Francès
©Diane Arbus Child With A Toy Hand Grenade In Central Park, NYC, 1962. Courtesy Collection Francès
©Diane Arbus Child With A Toy Hand Grenade In Central Park, NYC, 1962. Courtesy Collection Francès
©Alin Bozbiciu Care (2023). Courtesy Collection Francès
©Alin Bozbiciu Care (2023). Courtesy Collection Francès
©Gregory Crewdson Untitled (Penitent Girl) (Série Twilight) (2001-2002). Courtesy Collection Francès
©Gregory Crewdson Untitled (Penitent Girl) (Série Twilight) (2001-2002). Courtesy Collection Francès

France (15)

NEWM ART COLLECTION

»We collect art that resonates with our experiences and challenges us in unexpected ways.«

Collection Lambert

The legendary French gallerist and collector, Yvon Lambert, is famed for his relentlessly forward-looking approach to visual art as well as uncanny acumen for understanding how art works and spaces interact with each other.

Peyrassol – Parc de sculptures

For the Franco-Belgian couple, Philippe Austruy and Valérie Bach, wine, food, and hospitality are equally as important as contemporary art

Venet Foundation

Sculpture park in Bernar Venet’s native Provence

dslcollection

Paris-based couple Sylvain and Dominique Lévy focus on chinese contemporary art

Le Silo

Jean-Philippe and Françoise ­Billarant have been engaged with minimalism, ­conceptual art, and geometric abstraction

Diane Venet Collection

Una Meistere in conversation with Diane Venet about collecting jewellery made by artists.

Time & Architecture

Over the past three decades the Billarant’s have been deeply involved with collecting conceptual art, minimalism, and geometric abstraction.

A Tribute to Minimal and Conceptual Art

Venet strove to acquire museum quality artwork from the very beginning.

Sylvain & Dominique Lévy

Founded in 2005 by Paris-based couple Sylvain and Dominique Lévy, the DSL Collection is one of the rare Chinese contemporary art collections in France.

dslcollection x Photo London

The dslcollection is a supporter of Photo London, presenting its virtual museum with the fair, here with an interview and artworks on collecting photography.

Le Silo

For more than 35 years Parisian based collectors Françoise & Jean-Philippe Billarant have been intensely engaged with Minimalism and Conceptual art.

Marc & Josée Gensollen

To mark the opening of LOOP Barcelona we spoke with the Marseille based collector couple who have built an impressive collection of Minimal and Conceptual Art.

Jean François Keller

Long-time IC Collector Jean François Keller is someone that needs to have a personal connection with artworks he buys.