La MOB Our Boutique & Gallery
La Mob is both Dora Maar’s unmistakable mobylette that you can see in situ and the gallery space highlighting the history of the Dora Maar House and its artists in residence. Upon entering La Mob on the ground floor of the Dora Maar House, you will be greeted by an exhibition of artworks created by Fellows of the Dora Maar House and artists who had a strong link to Dora Maar. Once you enter the second room, you will find many wonderful objects created by former artists in residence, local artists and artisans and of course, items inspired by Dora herself.
La Mob’s spring, autumn and winter hours are Thursdays to Sundays 11AM-1PM and 2-5PM. La Mob’s summer hours are Tuesdays-Sundays 11AM-1PM and 2-6PM. La Mob is closed mid December-mid March each year.
Current Exhibition
Le Temps de La Mue | May-November 2024
“Le Temps de la Mue” is above all the title of a series of twenty texts and engravings by Leonor Fini, colored by the artist, published in 1975 by Galerie Bosquet in 230 signed copies. Both the drawings and the automatic avant-garde texts scribbled in her telephone diaries are totally abstract, and her incisive, sometimes funny, sometimes cynical writing reveals a gallery of colorful characters, Fini’s almost-monsters in full moult. For the first time, Leonor’s molting creatures take over Dora’s house in Ménerbes, as if their natural presence revealed the creative power shared by the two women. Curated by CreativeTech.
past exhibitions
Dora Chez Dora Maar | March-May 2024
The Dora Maar Cultural Center presents a selection of their Dora Maar photographic collection in the “Dora Chez Dora Maar” exhibition at La Mob, March 13 to May 12th, 2024. The DMCC’s special collection originates from copies of vintage prints presented to our founder Nancy B. Negley by Hubertus Gasser of Haus der Kunst gallery in 2003. These copies were made for the sole purpose of exhibiting at the Dora Maar House and we are proud to present this selection to the public for the first time.
Secrets d’Atelier | June-November 2023
A collection of drawings, poems, paintings, which open a new window on the inner life of Dora Maar: Her parents, her friends, her cat, Picasso, her relationship to faith. These works will be seen for the first time, using various technologies to highlight them, the exhibition invites one into Dora Maar’s inner struggle, the two faces of Janus, her withdrawal and her openness to the world, and the journey between the different periods of her life. Curated by CreativeTech.
Chez Nancy | April-June 2023
A post-humous exhibition of works by DMCC founder, Nancy Brown Negley. Discover Nancy’s world, her paint tubes, palettes, her collage papers and personal photos from her time here in Ménerbes as well as in Texas, her home state. Nancy’s personal practice as a painter gave her profound empathy for other artists, whom she supported both individually and through institutions. Many individual creative people were helped by her at a crucial moment in their careers, and the world we live in is richer in immeasurable ways.
Last | October 2022-March 2023
Poetry became one of Dora Maar’s principal means of creative exploration when she was here in Ménerbes. When she was here, she sought time to work and to contemplate, precisely what our artists do when they come here. Dora Maar’s poetry, along with the poems in this exhibition, are often concerned with the language of the eternal, located in the temporal specifics of place. The paradox is that what will last, is often found in what was last, or lost. In her poem, “The Lost Photograph of Dora Maar,” Siobhan Scarry writes, “Surrealist dreams never end.” Perhaps the many poets dreaming in her house make a Möbius strip of poetry spilling out of the stone walls, the sounds, the smells, the light. La Mob decodes the imagination and life of Dora Maar, as well as those of the artists in residence in Ménerbes. The exhibition Last traverses the link between these points in time. In order to animate the juxtaposition and superimposition of past, present and future works, CreativeTech combines scenographic techniques that appeal to different senses.
Echos! | May-September 2022
A conversation, at the foot of the Provençal jasmines, under an amber sun, between artists and great souls. During an imaginary lunch together, Dora Maar observes the world, Nicolas de Staël rests his brushes, Joe Downing smells the air of Provence, Jane Eakin listens to nature. A timeless dialogue following four great artists of the 20th century in Ménerbes echoes the artists in residence at the Dora Maar House. La Mob, conceived for interdisciplinary artistic dialogues across time and space, brings together artists Joe Downing, Jane Eakin, Dora Maar and Nicolas de Staël, like old friends sharing a lunch in the shade of the Provençal pines – an exchange of words, a look at works that resonate with each other.
La Maison dans la Maison | September 2021-May 2022
Piotr Klemensiewicz began his ‘Maisons’ in the 1980s and has regularly returned to this idea even while working on other projects. His most recent exploration of the motif uses Afghan kilims as a support. The diptych, “Maisons mères 2/21” and “Maisons mères 3/21” were started by Piotr years ago and finished specifically for this exhibition. Piotr was the first painter in residence at the Dora Maar House in 2008 when we opened our program. Gwen Strauss (DMCC) and Laure Kaltenbach (CreativeTech) selected these works with care for this exhibition, Piotr’s homecoming 13 years later…
Trio | June-September 2021
The inaugural exhibition, Trio ! at La Mob, reunites the three April 2021 artists in residence : Maxine Gordon (writing), Philippe Goron (pastel and ink drawing) and Eizo Sakata (ink and… salt of the world). The trio in residence inspired each other and now offer us a delicate exploration in the form of a tribute to Provence and Dora Maar.
