Correspondances
From September 8, 2012 to October 27, 2012
Opening on Wednesday November 30, -1
Through an initial conversation, the artists Corinne Laroche and James Brooks have developed a dialogue around the works of the painter Martin Barré.Opening on Wednesday November 30, -1
An invited artist and an artist from the gallery find the correspondence that unites them with a third presence, Martin Barré - a historical reference in French gestural abstraction. Two artists from two different generations, both working on the medium of paper, exploring similar reflexions on space, territory, repetition, memory and the grid, have decided to take Martin Barré’s oeuvre as reference and a starting point from which to enhance their own areas of operation in preparation of this dialogue with three participants. Starting from the 50s, Martin Barré uses his rules of play (règles de jeu) that question the gesture of the artist, the format of a painting, its spatiality and its production mode.
Rediscovering the rigour of Malevich and Mondrian that were at the source of abstraction, he develops an exchange of traces, planes, withdrawals and the relation between the painting-unit (unité-tableau) and the series-unit (ensemble-série). These ideas that question the instability, the background or subject-matter, the out-of-focus and the construction of a grid have all influenced the approach of the artists.
James Brooks combines the perfection of a gesture - a research of meditation through monotony - with a highly conceptual approach. Identity, whether of a place, an idea or of himself is confronted to the omnipresence of information in our society. Brooks is intrigued with abstraction's role within society, Rather than the formalist exercise of previous generations, he seeks a social relevance for abstraction. Via this, real or apocryphal memory impregnates his work. Corinne Laroche focusses on questions relating to territory, the repetition of a gesture, the filling of space. Abstraction by the litany and the memory of a gesture which refer to an existing memory is as much a tool as well as a result of her work.
The series is the tool of choice for these two artists, an agent that Martin Barré as well held dearly in order to create ensembles that go beyond individual works and their installation. The square, by its simplicity and its omnipresence creates another link between the shown works. The square of the grid, empty or full; the canvas which has no frame and which serves as his own reference; the wall that stops being support to become, as much as the canvas, artwork.
Finally, the explorations anchored in the work of these two artists, as well as those that appeared in the course of developing this exhibition find their stay in the unfinishedness of the gesture and the series. All this to make sensible a minimalist approach that is not only situated in abstraction.
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