Nathalie Du Pasquier : New Paintings
Rubicon Gallery, Dublin
27 November - 22 December 2001
Nathalie du Pasquier was born in Bordeaux in 1957. She travelled extensively before settling in Milan permanantly in 1979. It was in Milan that she became a founding member of the acclaimed Design movement - Memphis and latterly focussing on her own painting. ‘Memphis’ marked a revolutionary moment in contemporary design, the group addressed architecture, interior design, furniture and eclectic ‘objects’. They sought to create a more up-to-date lifestyle atmosphere and were distinguished by their “games of aesthetic mockery” and an anti-idealogical energy which gave the movement its richness, complexity and ambiguity. Led by architect Ettore Sotsasse, the group comprised several nationalities, styles, disciplines and sensibilities.
Around 1987 Nathalie du Pasquier began to focus more exclusively on her studio practise, working within the genre of Still Life. The artist believes “the studio is a place to work but also a place to live” , the objects are those that surround her in her daily working life; handtools, baskets and shoes with nothing more exotic than a patterned vase or an unusual stone. In his essay about her work in 2000 the Irish painter stephen McKenna said “This is not a celebration of banality but a means of concentrating the attention on how things are seen and painted......an attempt is made to release the visual marvels hidden beneath the surface of things”. Nathalies’ work is anchored in the representation of an object or a collection of objects but the work has no anecdotal narrative present in them. If the paintings have names, they are merely descriptive and if the objects are recogniseable that is merely incidental. Stephen McKenna noted that “A pepper becomes primarilly a colour variation of certain yellows joined to a precise green curve. It is not a giant pepper. A pair of scissors is a series of arabesques, joints and reflections where the colours and and positions of the shadows compete in importance with the objects” Scale is a key element of the work, the objects are frequently represented many times greater than life-size, in subdued, muted colours and the treatment of shadows is altogether significant.
In her new work Nathalie Du Pasquier studies her subject matter at a much closer range and exaggerates the role of shadows and reflections by looking through transparent glasses and bottles. All the objects in the paintings sit on a flat plane and contain a horizon. “Through the glass, with or without water, the shapes of things change, this horizon is broken”. In her past exhibitons, items in the painting were gathered and strategically placed to create a composition. Lately the way in which Nathalie looks at her subject matter creates the composition, sometimes forcing her to crop items out of view. In this new suite of paintings she is more assertively exploring the formal aspects of light colour and composition using still life as a conduit for these experiments.
Nathalie Du Pasquier has exhibited internationally since the late 80’s, in galleries such as ‘Le Cadre Gallery’ Hong Kong, Antonio Colombo Arte Milan and Galerie Christa Burger Munich, this is her second solo-project with the Rubicon Gallery Dublin.
Catalogue Available.
RUBICON GALLERY
10 St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2
