FRAME is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition, Flying Colors: A Dialogue with the Collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The exhibition will be on view at the Musée d’art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne Métropole (MAMC+) from June 27, 2026, through January 3, 2027. The exhibition is the first collection exchange between the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) and MAMC+, establishing an exciting framework for future collaboration between the two institutions.
The exchange, facilitated by FRAME, represents one of the most significant commitments between a French and American museum in recent years—a model for the kind of partnerships FRAME was created to support.
Complete Press kit available in English and French
About the Exhibition
Flying Colors brings together 164 works by 46 American artists drawn from both the Mia and MAMC+ collections, tracing major currents in American art from 1950 to the present. Conceived by Aurélie Voltz, director of MAMC+ and curator of the exhibition, the show unfolds across six thematic sections, including artworks by artists associated with Black Mountain College and the Federal Art Project, Color Field Painting and the Washington Color School, Minimalism, Pop Art and Postmodernism, and many whose works engage questions of freedom, identity, and protest.
The exhibition’s title derives from an airplane painted in bold colors by Alexander Calder—an image that captures the transatlantic spirit at the core of the project. MAMC+ has collected American art since the early 1970s, building one of the most significant holdings in France, now numbering nearly 500 works. Flying Colors places that collection in direct dialogue with Mia’s holdings, creating a complementary conversation across two institutions with deep but distinct relationships to American art.
Artists represented in the exhibition include Josef Albers, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Philip Guston, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Catherine Opie, Lorna Simpson, Robert Rauschenberg, Kiki Smith, Andy Warhol, and David Wojnarowicz, among others.
The exhibition opens as part of MAMC+’s American Season, a broader program marking the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence. A companion exhibition, Frank Stella: Minimal / Maximal, runs concurrently at MAMC+ through January 3, 2027.
“What makes this project significant is not just the exhibition itself, but the commitments behind it,” said William Beekman, FRAME Co-President, North America. “A genuine exchange means both institutions take the risk of lending, and both audiences benefit. This collaboration is the commitment we set out to build when FRAME was founded. This is that model working.”
“Mia has long believed that American art is best understood in conversation with the world, not in isolation from it,” said Katie Luber, Mia’s Nivin and Duncan MacMillan Director and President. “Seeing our collection placed alongside MAMC+’s in Saint-Étienne and Mia’s future presentation of works from MAMC+ is exactly the kind of partnership that deepens what museums can offer their communities.”
“Flying Colors reflects both the strength of MAMC+’s commitment to American art and Saint-Étienne Métropole’s ambition to position itself within an international cultural landscape,” said Aurélie Voltz, General Director of MAMC+. “Through this partnership with Mia, we are not only presenting major works to our audiences but also affirming the role of the museum as a public institution rooted in its territory and open to the world. This exchange embodies a vision of culture as a shared resource—one that connects local communities to global narratives and reinforces the importance of long-term international cooperation.”
A Model for Transatlantic Partnership
The bilateral exchange is a direct product of FRAME’s mission. Founded 27 years ago, FRAME has facilitated 37 exhibitions, 10 online programs, and 15 cultural mediation projects between its member institutions in France, the United States, and Canada. The network operates on the premise that sustained, structured partnerships—rather than one-off loans—produce the most durable cultural exchange.
The Mia–MAMC+ exchange reflects that principle. Both institutions bring distinct collection strengths: Mia holds more than 100,000 works spanning 5,000 years of world art history; MAMC+ holds more than 23,000 works focused on the second half of the 20th century, with American art holdings that began to take shape in the early 1970s under then-director Bernard Ceysson. Together, the two collections produce a reading of American art that neither could mount alone.
“This exhibition perfectly captures the spirit of the FRAME network since its inception,” says Christelle Creff, FRAME Co-President, France, and Director of the French Museums Department (Ministry of Culture). “Not only does it shine an international spotlight on the exceptional complementary collections of this consortium of French and American museums, but it also fosters a deeper understanding of these works and highlights the connections between our cultures through transatlantic dialogue. ”
Publication
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition, co-published by MAMC+ and Les Commissaires Anonymes (Cluny). Edited by Aurélie Voltz, the volume includes essays by Voltz and MAMC+ collections curator Zoé Marty, along with approximately 30 entries on key works and prefaces from Mia, FRAME, and MAMC+. The catalog runs 152 pages, with approximately 100 color illustrations, and is available in French and English editions (approx. €25).
