Presentation of the museum

 

The Folk Arts Museum of Laduz is the work of a lifetime, by a whole family: the Humberts. It was in 1962 that Raymond and Jacqueline Humbert come to live in the countryside… Since 1986, the Museum of Folk Arts in Laduz works with a cultural society: Les Amis du Musée, The Friends of the Museum. Many members support it.

The Birth of the Museum

“… We opened the door of ancient craftsmen workshops. Carpenters, shoemakers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, saddlers… closed, abandoned. Moved, we then proceeded to gather all this memory disappearing into indifference” says Jacqueline Humbert. After three years in Rome at the Villa Medici,  in 1962, that Raymond and Jacqueline Humbert come to live in the countryside Laduz (Yonne) in Burgundy. Artists and passionate collectors, they accumulate a multitude of folk art pieces, works, tools, documents, real favorites for simple and beautiful things. One spring day in 1977, Raymond Humbert says to his three children :
I do a museum and you will help me. Not just any museum! I hate traditionalists museums. ... —Raymond Humbert
After the construction and renovation of buildings, the first part of the museum will open at Easter in 1986. The task is immense, other buildings will be built. Until his death in 1990, Humbert Raymond will continue to seek and collect objects, witnesses of the rural heritage. Today, Jacqueline watches over the common work.
What is a Folk Art Museum if the reflection on the past, diversity is not an opening on the present and the future? —Raymond Humbert

 

 

more about Raymond Humbert's work

The Museum today

As desired by Raymond Humbert, the museum has become in Laduz a memory space, for preservation and transmission of an often overlooked rural heritage. Find your roots! An adventure like the Museum of Folk Arts in Laduz, Burgundy worth pursuing. It is made up a formidable collection of 100,000 objects, treasures on Rural Heritage, on Crafts and Everyday Life.

With its workshops “wooden toys”, the Laduz Museum is an entertainment & creation space, for children who wish to express their imagination with materials from nature.

The museum is a nice place in the heart of Burgundy, the break in the garden facilitates travel in time to reflect not only on the past but on the future too, and it’s an pportunity to drink in the shade.

Knowledge of the past is meaningful only if it allows a real know to continue. – Raymond Humbert

Every summer until 2009, Jacqueline Humbert realizes contemporary art exhibitions around the textile, paper, plant … they are restarted under the leadership of talented designers.

Then, from 2010 to 2012, three exhibitions were devoted to the works of Raymond Humbert.

And from 2013, each summer, new exhibitions of contemporary artists animate the museum space and resonate with its collections.

Books, catalogs are published regularly. It can be purchased at the gift shop.

Raymond et Jacqueline Humbert
Raymond et Jacqueline Humbert. Photo DR

The work of a lifetime, the work of a family

Ambitious project of Raymond and Jacqueline Humbert, the Museum of Folk Arts in Laduz is a place of preservation of the rural heritage of folk art, forgotten trades and skills.

Enriching the collections and publicizing the paint Raymond Humbert, Jacqueline Humbert watches over the work done by her husband. She designs and organizes temporary exhibitions. Fascinated by the technique of reverse glass, she hosted a workshop.

For twenty years, Vincent Humbert directed and watched over the Museum. With his experience of animal sculptor, he led the workshop wooden toys for children. Now installed in the Drôme with his partner Michèle Payri, they go their own project.

Denis Humbert heads Art Populaire sans Frontière (Folk Art without Borders). With the collections, it offers temporary exhibitions, turnkey, an always renewed design.  Website

Jean-Christophe Humbert, a painter, exhibited his works in the mouvence of Singular Art. Website

About Raymond Humbert - Website

Open on the outside

Jacqueline and Raymond Humbert

From obtaining the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in 1958 painting to creating the Museum of Folk Arts in Laduz, Raymond Humbert had with Jacqueline, a singular and atypical course.

Until his death in 1990, real tireless creator, Raymond Humbert increased its activities. If his name is inseparable from the Museum of Laduz he conducted simultaneously: painting, exhibitions, research and writing.

Exhibition designers from their collections

After his first folk art exhibition in Aillant-sur-Tholon in 1971, Raymond Humbert from 1973 to 1977, was commissioned by the city of Auxerre and with support from the General Council and the Secretariat of State Culture, to organize exhibitions around the daily life of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. (Numerous articles of the press and several national television shows (FR3 and TF1.)

Founded in Auxerre in 1972, the Association of the Water Coach House was the immediate support of the city of Auxerre and many cities of the department, in 1973, the General Council of the Yonne and in 1975, the recognition of the State Secretariat for Culture. Water Coach House became Center of Cultural Action. The adventure ends in 1977, with the departure of Raymond and Jacqueline Humbert and that of Marie-José Drogou, photographer and archivist.

See also : Yonne - Folk Art - 20 exhibitions by Jacqueline and Raymond Humbert