SEA, POP & SUN

April 25 – November 1st 2026
Villa Carmignac, Porquerolles Island, France

The Fondation Carmignac presents SEA, POP & SUN, a dazzling ode to the freedom and vitality of the 1960s and 1970s that summons the Pop spirit. The exhibition at the Villa Carmignac, nestling between pine trees and the sea, reveals sun-drenched, sensual, soaring works of Pop Art, which continues to radiate its electric and ecstatic energy today.

Curators : Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer

Ed Ruscha, Sea of desire, 2018, automobile body paint on metal panel steel and aluminium, 5 x 12 m, Collection Carmignac
© Ed Ruscha, Photo : Marc Domage

With its title inspired by Serge Gainsbourg’s provocative hit, the exhibition invites us into the dreamworld of a seaside escape, and a time when the sexual revolution was overturning conventions, morals were shifting, and everything seemed possible. The South of France and its beaches were more than mere holiday postcards; they were gateways to new horizons of freedom and transgression.

Here, far from the cities and bathed in the light, colors and scents of the Mediterranean, Pop Art reveals unexpected facets. No longer drawing on everyday objects or urban advertising, it turns instead to new motifs: the sky, the sea, the sun and the spirit of summer. While acknowledging its roots in the consumer society, Pop Art here acquires a renewed sensuality and intensity, at times verging on the cosmic, from these shores and summer scenes.

Derrik Adams, Floater 104, 2020, acrylic paint, pencil, fabric on paper collage, 127 x 127 © 2025 Derrick Adams Studio, courtesy of the artist and Gagosian, Photo : John Berens / Roy Lichtenstein, Crying girl, 1964, enameled porcelain on steel, 116,8 x 116,8 cm, Collection Carmignac © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein New York / ADAGP, Paris, 2026, Photo : DR

Yet behind the exaltation expressed by the pioneers of Pop Art – and by those who draw upon it today – lies an awareness of a paradise lost, with all its artifices and disillusions. These holiday landscapes were quickly saturated and diminished by overconsumption. Unbridled hedonism, now faced with its own consequences, no longer tastes the same. What inspiration, what impulse can the Pop spirit still offer?

Bringing together more than 80 works of art, including 15 from the Carmignac Collection, and curated by Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer, Sea, Pop & Sun places icons of Pop Art such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Marjorie Strider, Evelyne Axell and Martial Raysse in dialogue with contemporary artists who extend or interrogate the movement, including Derrick Adams, Cosima von Bonin and Judy Chicago.

Evelyne Axell, Ice Cream 1, 1964, oil on canvas, 80 x 70 cm, private collection, Belgium © Evelyne Axell / ADAGP, Paris, 2026, Photo : Paul Louis

Carmignac

The Foundation has its roots in this collection. Built up over the years without bias or constraint, the Carmignac Collection offers a unique panorama of contemporary creation, bearing the imprint of Édouard Carmignac’s personal favorites. It now comprises more than 300 works, mainly from the 20th and 21st centuries: major pieces by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gerhard Richter, Martial Raysse… as well as a broad range of works by emerging artists or artists from emerging countries. The Foundation is committed to preserving and bringing this collection to life.

The Villa Carmignac at Porquerolles

Since 2018, the Fondation Carmignac has been developing a cultural programme of events in a space that is open to the public, the Villa Carmignac. An art centre with 2,000 m2 of exhibition space and 15 hectares of gardens, the Villa welcomes visitors to a protected site on the Île de Porquerolles. Each year it mounts a temporary exhibition, organises cultural and artistic actions, and displays permanent works created especially for the site. Conceived to be in symbiosis with the natural setting, the Villa Carmignac is enriched by, and merges with, the surrounding elements to offer a unique visitor experience.