The artistic dynamic
Galleries, artists' studios, national and international exhibitions, creations and discoveries are guaranteed. Events are organized all year round, from the International Biennial of Anglet to the street art course in Bayonne. The painting testifies to the many inspiring subjects such as dance scenes, Basque pelota, places and landscapes, costumes, bullfighting scenes, scenes of daily life in the farms... Representations of religious inspiration and also the influence of identity and politics. Works that inspired artists, in love with the Basque Country, its towns and villages, transcribe in various styles and allegories. Other artists have of course been inspired by this territory and its inhabitants, and in particular by the Gramont family, a great family linked to the history of Bayonne and which shone in Europe in several fields. Academic, symbolic, figurative, abstract, even naive paintings... painting is widely celebrated in the museums of Bayonne and Biarritz. These museums are also dedicated to contemporary art and bear witness to the liveliness of the region and the buzz of the current art scene.
Ramiro Arrue, a key figure in Basque painting!
An absolutely essential Basque artist of whom Roland Barthes said: "In a word, the work is a staircase; its being is the degree: a staircase that does not stop." This prolix painter of the twentieth century admirably described the scenes of everyday life with a simple, clear line, a refined drawing and a deliberately restricted color palette. A style that is immediately recognizable at first glance.
The modernity of the Basque avant-garde
This avant-garde is made up of many talents who implement a modern, abstract, informal art and give priority to color. The Basque regionalism seduces today many amateurs. From sculpture to lithography to painting, these new artists are surprising with encouraging results on the art market.
The only ethnographic museum in the Basque Country
In the heart of the historic center of Bayonne, this museum contains more than 2,000 objects and works of art. Engravings, drawings, paintings and posters testify to this artistic diversity.
The Bayonne Museum of Fine Arts
It was named the Bonnat-Helleu Museum, after a renowned Bayonne figure, Léon Bonnat, who had a brilliant career as a portrait painter and who was a professor and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Léon Bonnat's legacy truly launched the Bayonne Museum among the greatest museums in France. Discover the richness of the collections through a selection of "favorites".
The Historical Museum of Biarritz
Celebrates Biarritz and the sea, Biarritz and the Empire, in the world, and Biarritz today through iconographies, engravings and great painters, witnesses of the history of the city of fishermen and more widely. Housed in a former Anglican church, the museum is dedicated to the evocation of the city's past. The association of the Friends of Old Biarritz revives the most prestigious periods of the city. The porch presents a memorial in homage to the English officers who fell during the Napoleonic wars of which Biarritz and its surroundings were the scene in 1814.
Villa Arnaga, Edmond Rostand Museum
In Cambo-les-Bains, in addition to the interior architecture designed as a theater set and its park consisting of a French and English garden, you can admire a collection of paintings of the time. There is also a private and permanent photographic exhibition on the personalities of Arnaga.
Private art galleries
They are scattered everywhere. In Saint-Jean-de-Luz, with the Portal Gallery and Bleu la Galerie, Art Traffik and the Bellartea villa in Anglet, the Dubasque, Izartea and de l'Orbe galleries in Bayonne, Art Design Gallery in Guéthary, the Chemins-Bideak space in Saint-Palais, and Ciboure and Hendaye..
Sculpture in the Basque Country
Between steep cliffs and coves, and between the landscape and history which are an infinite source of inspiration, sculptors also feed on mythology and funerary art. The Basque cross, formed by four commas, is widely sculpted and represented in many creations, even among the prestigious jewelers of the Basque coast. The ceramists and potters, with their know-how, reproduce and create with wonder all kinds of original works with Basque influences.
The art of photography
Or how the coastline, the cliffs, the preserved villages offer so many subjects to artistic clichés! Not a gallery without black and white and color photographs, freezing the moment.
Nowadays
Street art is the latest trend, imported straight from the United States and which comes to upset the visual daily life on the walls, facades, corners of cities and often embellish them with talent, as opposed to some graffiti and tags questionable in artistic terms ... Let's not forget our ancestors who were the first graffiti artists on the walls of caves in the region. Like what, we do not invent anything! Some beautiful examples of street art frescoes coat the walls in Bayonne, which is a true open museum, alive, accessible to all and which attracts artists from around the world who present their urban, immersive and interactive experiences.
The Higher School of Art of the Basque Country
Created from the merger of the art schools of Biarritz and Bayonne, it offers degree courses (bac+3) with complete teaching and workshops of plastic practices open to all. The higher education courses offered are the design preparatory course, the art preparatory course and the DNA (national art diploma).
50 years of painting in the Basque Country
In the cloister of the Urdax monastery near Ainhoa, more than 300 works of art are permanently on display. All created by painters and/or sculptors who are among the greatest Basque artists of our time. All these contemporary artists symbolize the richness of creation today in the Basque Country in very different styles, but nevertheless complementary.
