V

The end of the Prix de Rome

In 1968, by decision of André Malraux, Minister of Cultural Affairs, the Prix de Rome competition was abolished. With it vanished a three-hundred-year-old institution that had trained generations of French painters, sculptors, architects and musicians.

The measure did not come out of nowhere. It closed a debate that had lasted almost a century, and of which May 1968 was only the final act. To understand its reasons, one must listen to the criticism as well as to the defence.

Jean Marc Lange, laureate of 1965, belongs to the very last generation formed by the old system. His stay at the Villa coincided with the end of one world — and the beginning of another.

A garden path leads to the entrance gate, beneath a great pine