Exhibitions

Adya & Otto van Rees. Au cœur des avant-gardes

Paris, France

A Dutch couple navigates the birth of modernism, moving from delicate divisionism to the bold abstractions of Dadaist Zurich.

Otto van Rees, Peinture

Image credit

Otto van Rees, Peinture [silhouette d’homme], 1930. Collection particulière, Ph. Han Westering / fondation Van Rees © ADAGP, Paris, 2026

Meet the artist

ArtLovers Tip

Look closely at the creations familiales—these intimate objects weren't intended for the public eye but reveal the true emotional weight behind their more formal abstract experiments.

Exhibition Highlights - What you'll see

The Musée de Montmartre presents the first French retrospective of Otto and Adya van Rees, a couple who lived at the legendary Bateau-Lavoir alongside Picasso and Braque. Their creative output is inseparable from their shared life, where the arrival of their children and deep personal tragedies colored their experiments with Cubism and Abstraction. This exhibition restores their place in the 20th-century avant-garde, showing how their domestic intimacy fueled a radical artistic rebellion.

You're watching the tactile shift from oil on canvas to intricate embroidery and decorative arts. The galleries feel like a private home where the domestic and the experimental blur, illuminated by the soft northern light of the museum's historic garden-facing rooms. Scale shifts from intimate family sketches to the sharp, geometric demands of the Cercle et Carré group.

Worth the trip

  • Bateau-Lavoir connections: Witness the evolution of two artists who were present at the very moment Cubism was born in the heart of Montmartre.
  • Interdisciplinary breadth: View over a hundred works ranging from traditional paintings to rare avant-garde embroideries that challenged the boundaries of fine art.
  • A French first: Visit a landmark retrospective that finally acknowledges the van Rees' influence on Dada and the international modern movement within a French institution.

How to experience it

Walk through the chronological path slowly, paying attention to how Adya's textile work interacts with Otto's geometric compositions. After leaving the museum, wander through the Jardins Renoir to the vineyard of Clos Montmartre; the quiet, leafy atmosphere provides the perfect setting to contemplate how the couple maintained such creative radicalism while living in this serene corner of Paris.

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