Another Language for Painting

"I am honored to hold my first solo exhibition in China at the He Art Museum, presenting my artistic practice from the 1960s till now, including my early easel paintings. They are an important part of my artistic career, exploring a new field of art through the language of mathematics and science."——Bernar Venet

 

Bernar Venet, born in 1941 in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France, lives and works in New York, USA and Le Mé, France. One of the most influential French artists in the world to date, Venet has participated in over 30 public sculpture exhibitions and projects around the world and has been awarded the Grand Prix de l'Art de la Ville de Paris, the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, France's highest honor, and the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sculpture Center.

 

He began his career as a professional artist in 1963, and in 1966, he traveled to New York, where he was influenced by a group of minimalist artists. Upon his return to Nice, France, he created his classic "Steel Pipe" series, the first time he introduced the concept of mathematical geometry into his work. During this period, Venet realized that New York might be the best place for his art career and decided to settle there. Later, Venet began to experiment more radically by drawing scientific charts or data by hand on canvas, later even enlarging lecture recordings or readily available data charts in the form of photographs and exhibiting them directly as works, such as charts of the Wall Street stock market.

 

"Bernar Venet: Another Language for Painting" presents the artist's first large-scale solo exhibition in China, centered around his iconic steel sculptures and his unique mathematical language, which spans nearly half a century of artistic creation.

 

微信图片_20230327141953.jpg


微信图片_20230327142000.jpg


His creations have always focused on how to use mathematical symbols and diagrams to dissipate the usual metaphorical and polysemic nature of art, erasing the presence of the subject by means of rationality, liberating art from subjective assumptions and dwelling on the mathematical logic itself as presented in the picture.

 

微信图片_20230327142003.jpg


微信图片_20230327142005.jpg


微信图片_20230327142006.jpg


微信图片_20230327142008.jpg


The steel sculptures, as a representative series of sculptures by Bernar Venet, are an extension of his exploration in the field of mathematical geometry and an inter-dimensional experiment about the transformation of one-dimensional lines from two-dimensional planes to three-dimensional space.

 

In the 1970s, he created a series of works between easel painting and sculpture, initially presenting various geometric elements such as arcs, folds and straight lines in geometric planes, but later moving away from the "plane" and focusing on the three-dimensionalization of lines, and developing "indeterminate lines" in addition to straight lines, arcs and folds.

 

微信图片_20230327142010.jpg


微信图片_20230327142012.jpg


微信图片_20230327142014.jpg


In 1983, Venet experimented with "indeterminate lines" of aluminum strips, repeatedly stacked and twisted into irregular circles, and made a sculptural model consisting of three metal aluminum rings. The two-dimensional wall relief was thus transformed into an independent three-dimensional sculpture, a sculptural technique that would become his trademark. 


微信图片_20230327142016.jpg