Exhibition · 26 September — 16 October 2026
Masha Baur at MUST, Lecce
MUST — Museo Storico della Città di Lecce · Via degli Ammirati 11, Lecce, Puglia, Italy
For three weeks this autumn, Masha Baur’s monumental works on paper come to the heart of Lecce’s baroque old town. Sheets worked on the floor at the scale of a body — graphite polished into skin or erased until almost nothing remains, tulips falling through the figures like memories from another country.
The exhibition
The works on view belong to Baur’s 2025–26 body of work: large-format drawings in a single grade of pencil and a restricted palette of oil sticks, made over many sittings through erasing, smudging and brush manipulation. The human figure recedes into the background — a ghostly presence within a non-linear timeline — while softer washes of colour surface in its place.
What stays on the paper is not an image of a feeling but the residue of one — pressure, repetition, absence.
The artist
Masha Baur (b. 1984, Rostov-on-Don) is a German artist whose works on paper navigate the liminal space between memory and the subconscious. Her language is shaped by the emotive rawness of Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon alongside the gestural freedom of Cy Twombly. Following her selection for the Royal Society of Portrait Painters annual exhibition (London, 2019), she spent several years redefining her practice; the current series marks its most profound evolution.
The venue
MUST occupies the fifteenth-century former Monastery of Santa Chiara, directly beside Lecce’s Roman Theatre and a few minutes on foot from every major monument in the historic centre. The museum pairs the city’s archaeological story with a dedicated contemporary art programme.
- Via degli Ammirati 11, 73100 Lecce — mustlecce.it
- Open daily 9:00–21:00 through 17 October · Tickets €10 / reduced €7
- +39 0832 241067 · biglietteria@mustlecce.it
- Directions — the museum on Google Maps
- Also on at the museum: Tesori Nascosti della Galleria Borghese — Da Tiziano a Bernini (until 18 October)
Around the exhibition
Lecce is called the Florence of the South — a compact baroque city carved from honey-coloured pietra leccese, quieter and easier once the summer crowds have gone. Everything below is within a short walk of the museum, or an easy day around it.
The city
- The Roman Theatre sits directly beside the museum; Piazza del Duomo is about five minutes on foot.
- Basilica di Santa Croce — 140 years in the carving, the signature of Lecce baroque — is a ten-minute walk.
- Piazza Sant’Oronzo, with the Roman amphitheatre and the column that once marked the end of the Appian Way, lies between the two.
- Close the day with a loop of the sixteenth-century gates: Porta Napoli, Porta Rudiae, Porta San Biagio.
The season
- Late September holds 25–29°C days, easing to around 21°C by the show’s final week.
- The sea stays 20–25°C through mid-October — genuinely swimmable for the entire run.
- San Cataldo is twenty minutes from the museum; Torre dell’Orso and Porto Selvaggio reward the longer drive.
Getting there
- Brindisi airport (BDS) is around 40 minutes away by shuttle or train.
- Lecce is the southern terminus of the Adriatic line — direct trains from Rome, Milan and Bologna.
- From Bari and its airport, allow around two hours by rail.
Be there
Availability and prices of the works are on request — every enquiry reaches the studio directly. For occasional letters from the studio, including news of the opening, join the mailing list below.
Keep me informed
Occasional notes on new works and exhibitions — no more than a few times a year.
City photography via Wikimedia Commons: Santa Chiara — MattiaDeMarco, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Amphitheatre — NalaRome, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Roman theatre — Bernard Gagnon, CC0 · Santa Croce — Bernard Gagnon, CC0 · Due Sorelle — Josep Renalias, CC BY 4.0 · Caffè leccese — Davide Mauro, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Porta Napoli — Bernard Gagnon, CC0.