Martigny (dpa) – The Fondation Gianadda in Martigny, which is now the cause of an uproar in Switzerland with its large exhibition of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, has passed a milestone.
With the five millionth visitor in its history recorded in mid- August, the museum founded 20 years ago by an engineer, Leonard Gianadda, is one of the most successful anywhere in the world. At least, based on visitor numbers, it need not be shy about comparisons with famous museums in New York, London or Paris.
But since the exhibitions at the foundation are mainly oriented to please a broad general public’s tastes, the 65-year-old construction company boss finds himself being accused of a “McDonaldisation” of the arts. This makes Lonard Gianadda furious.
Be it Klee, Picasso, Manet, Rodin, Gauguin, or Kandinsky – the Fondation Gianadda is always consciously out to be a hit with the general public.
Critics say that the current exhibition, which began in June and has so far attracted 200,000 people, does not bring many new insights and that the paintings are mainly those regarded as the second-rate van Goghs. But this does not appear to bother visitors.
By now, the museum has become a veritable magnet for tourists in Martigny, an otherwise not very attractive city on a bend of the Rhone River and not far from Lake Geneva.
To some people, the combative engineer is the “magician of Martigny”, while others complain that he is guilty of “unimaginative” presentation of art pearls. It was the critic Daniel Rausis who used the term “McDonaldisation” against Gianadda.
“His museum even looks like a Big Mac,” Rausis sniffed.
Gianadda is enraged by such remarks. He argues that he never aimed to establish an elitist place meant only to please insiders. The businessman is happy that people who otherwise never set foot inside a museum have no inhibitions about the Fondation Gianadda.
“I do not presume to be educating people,” he says. “I just hope that they will be pleased.”
The grandson of poor Italian immigrants, Gianadda had earned considerable sums of money by 1976, the year he had bought a piece of property on the outskirts of Martigny for a housing project.
During the construction work, the remains of an antique temple of the Roman god Mercury were uncovered, and Gianadda became hesitant about building over it.
Then his brother Pierre died in an airplane crash in southern Italy. Leonard decided to dedicate a museum to him, to be called the Fondation Pierre Gianadda.
The modern, light-brown coloured building is constructed around the remnants of the Mercury temple and surrounded by a spacious sculpture-filled park. It also a fast-food snack shop.
Gianadda gladly introduces himself with the added designation “astrological sign of Leo, Leo in the ascendant”. He coyly cultivates his reputation as a wild man. And in the museum, his employees clearly know who is the boss.
“Only Monsieur Giannada can personally answer this,” one staff member responds when asked a harmless question about how many visitors the current exhbition has drawn.
But in dealing with potential art donors he evidently knows how to pull out other registers. By now, Gianadda has become a regular guest at museums and among art collectors around the world. In seeking art works for loan he can use all his powers of persuasion to win over even the most mistrustful private collectors.
In 1997, he got ten works from the collection of the Belgian banking family Franck, including a Picasso, a Cezanne and a Toulouse- Lautrec, for his museum in Martigny.
As a successful businessman, Gianadda knows how to stir up publicity. Posters for his exhibitions are put up everywhere around Switzerland and hundreds of brochures are sent out around the world. In Paris, he has his own press office.
The museum, which presents its most popular exhibitions in the summer months with an eye on the many foreign visitors, also has a permanent exhibition of old and rare automobiles. In the spacious gardens are sculptures by Rodin, Henry Moore and Joan Miro.
