Duane Hanson, Olivier Mosset @ Gagosian Gallery, Paris

Duane Hanson et Olivier Mosset
Gagosian Gallery, Paris
29 Septembre  - 12 November 2016 

Je n'aime pas la fiction, j'aime l'histoire.
—Duane Hanson

Une peinture c'est simplement un objet matériel mais, à cause du contexte, du discours, de l'histoire, c'est aussi inévitablement quelque chose d'autre.

—Olivier Mosset

Gagosian Gallery présente une exposition d'œuvres de Duane Hanson et d'Olivier Mosset. Les sculptures hyperréalistes de Duane Hanson et les peintures minimalistes d'Olivier Mosset sont exposées ensemble pour la première fois. Les deux artistes, radicalement différents et tout aussi extrêmes dans leurs champs de recherche respectifs, s'emploient, chacun à leur manière, à tester les limites de la perception humaine.

Pour Duane Hanson, la figuration extrêmement détaillée et précisément réalisée est devenue un outil pour résister à l'objectivité et à la neutralité. Les figures humaines d'Hanson au réalisme saisissant, qui dépeignent des personnes en mettant l'accent sur la classe ouvrière américaine, ont été au cœur de son œuvre pendant plus de quarante ans. Au début de sa carrière, Hanson a réalisé des scènes de bouleversements sociaux traumatisants et violents, comme Abortion (1966) et Race Riot (1969–71), dont il détruisit la plupart par la suite, car il souhaitait que l'on se souvienne de lui pour ses œuvres plus subtilement évocatrices de sa période mature; parmi les œuvres exposées Window Washer (1984) et Housepainter I (1984–88) caractérisent cela. Les représentations d'américains ordinaires par Hanson, s'inscrivant dans une tradition et notamment dans le Réalisme français du dix-neuvième siècle, évoquent la narration cathartique et le pathos. La précision qu'il apporte aux petits détails comme les cheveux, l'élasticité de la peau, la texture des vêtements, et l'expressivité du visage perdu dans ses pensées, provoquent des émotions fortes allant de l'empathie à la répulsion.

A la recherche de la rigueur formelle et des origines physiques de la peinture, l'art d'Olivier Mosset est direct et évident, rejetant la figuration, la subjectivité, le symbole et la métaphore dans une pratique qui, à la fois, retient et rejette l'histoire dialectique de la peinture. Membre du groupe minimaliste BMPT aux côtés de Daniel Buren, Michel Parmentier et Niele Toroni, la recherche de Mosset se consacre à l'interrogation des idées fixes à propos de la paternité créatrice. BMPT était en phase avec une vague intellectuelle de théorie critique du vingtième siècle impliquée dans la déconstruction d'idées à propos de la création et de l'interprétation de la culture, «La mort de l'auteur» de Roland Barthes en étant un exemple majeur.

Les 200 peintures à l'huile, ou davantage, identiques, que Mosset a produites entre 1966 et 1974, représentant un petit cercle noir au centre d'une toile blanche carrée, sont considérées comme l'apogée de l'approche expérimentale de la peinture de BMPT, qui cherchait aussi à défier la fonction sociale de l'artiste. Associées à l'abstraction conceptuelle, les œuvres de Mosset se caractérisent par une forme et une couleur pures, provoquant des expériences physiques illimitées de la surface, de l'échelle et du motif. A travers cinq nouvelles toiles monochromatiques, chacune ayant une nuance de couleur sourde ou intense, Mosset poursuit son exploration des possibilités de la forme pure.

Dans une juxtaposition forte qui met en contraste l'aspiration vers la neutralité sublime avec le désir de représenter le pathos de la réalité humaine, deux axes de l'art du vingtième siècle créent des expériences physiques saisissantes, dans lesquelles le spectateur peut considérer sa propre manière de voir.

OLIVIER MOSSET est né en 1944 à Berne, en Suisse. Parmi ses expositions personnelles on peut citer: «Olivier Mosset: Fakes, fêlures and walls,» Musée Régional d'Art Contemporain, Sérignan (2013); «Sous apparence,» Opéra National de Paris, Palais Garnier, Paris (2012); «Leaving the Museum,» Kunsthalle Zurich (2012); FIAC, cour du Louvre (2010); «A step backwards,» Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon (2010); Museo d'Arte, Mendrisio, Ticino, Suisse (2009); «Olivier Mosset - Windows,» Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007); «Arbeiten/travaux/works 1966–2003,» Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne (2003); Musée Saint- Pierre Art Contemporain, Lyon (1987); Centre d'art contemporain, Genève (1986); «Olivier Mosset 65-85,» Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers (1985); Centre d'Art Contemporain, Châteauroux; Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse (1985). Il vit et travaille à Tucson, Arizona.

DUANE HANSON est né en 1925 à Alexandria, Minnesota et décédé en 1996 à Boca Raton, Floride. Hanson a obtenu son BA au Macalester College, Minnesota et son MA à la Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. Parmi ses expositions personnelles on peut citer : le Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Danemark (1975); le Des Moines Art Center, Iowa (1977); la Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1978); le Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1979); la Kunsthaus Wien, Austriche (1992); le Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada (1994; exposition itinérante au Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas); le Daimaru Museum of Art, Tokyo (1995; exposition itinérante au Genichiro-Inkuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa; et au Kintetsu Museum of Art, Osaka); la Saatchi Gallery, Londres (1997); «Duane Hanson, A Survey of his Work from the '30s to the '90s,» au Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL (1998; exposition itinérante au Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan; au Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; et au Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis); «Duane Hanson: More than Reality, 2001,» à la Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfort (2001; exposition itinérante au Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan; à la Kunsthal Rotterdam, Pays-Bas; aux National Galleries of Scotland, Edimbourg; et à la Kunsthaus, Zürich); «Duane Hanson: A Midwestern Perspective,» au Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (2004); «Duane Hanson: Real life,» au Michener Museum of Art, Doylestown (2006); «Sculptures of the American Dream,» Kunsthalle Krems, Austriche (2009, exposition itinérante au Arken Museum for Moderne Kunst, Copenhague, Danemark; au Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finlande; à l'UNESCO Weltkulturerbe Völklinger Hütte, Völklingen, Allemagne; à la Fundación Canal, Madrid, Spain); et «Duane Hanson,» à la Serpentine Gallery, Londres (2015).

GAGOSIAN GALLERY, PARIS
4 rue de Ponthieu - 75008 Paris
www.gagosian.com

Tony Matelli at Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.

Tony Matelli: New Gravity
Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
February 5 - July 20, 2014

Tony Matelli: New Gravity, the artist’s first solo exhibition at a U.S museum, opens at the Davis Museum on February 5, 2014. Comprised of recent works from the past five years as well as new works created specifically for the Davis, the exhibition focuses on the artist’s discursive use of time, ambivalence, banality and wonder. In Matelli’s work the physical laws of objects are often reversed, upended or atomized, and with these deft manipulations of matter and gravity come profound reorientations in perspective and ways of seeing. Matelli creates a distortion field of sorts, a lens through which to question one reality and create another.

Installed in two parts at the Davis, the exhibition also sites two sculptures (Sleep Walker and Stray Dog) outdoors on campus. Tony Matelli: New Gravity will be on view February 5 - May 11, in the Bronfman & Chandler Galleries; and February 5 - July 20 in the Jobson & Tanner Galleries.

“Tony Matelli is a trader in combinatory illusions, a skilled manipulator of the restless mediation between metaphor, meaning and truth," said Lisa Fischman, Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director of the Davis and curator of the exhibition.

“His works are persistently surprising, inventive, powerful and playful – evoking complex sensations and inviting multiple viewings. We are delighted to present his first U.S. museum exhibition at the Davis and to introduce New England audiences to his work.”

Often employing a hyper-realistic idiom, Matelli’s work challenges our perceptions of reality. His sculptures create a disconcerting tension between uneasiness and humor, frequently suspending time and belief. Matelli imbues his art with layers of familiarity and discomfort, employing remarkable skill and technique to create works that ask us to take a critical look at ourselves and at the culture around us.

“There is a romantic impulse in my work, that strives to give form to my emotions and thoughts and the way I see the world,” commented Matelli. “I’m fascinated with that moment when you become aware of a perceptual shift in your environment, so what was a seemingly real-life experience becomes a complicated art experience. That approach to art is really powerful. It makes everything else seem like a prop that only pointed to an idea. The precision of praxis has a great impact on me, and my work operates in that spirit.”

Tony Matelli’s work is in numerous private and public collections including the Cranbrook Art Museum; FLAG Art Foundation; ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum; the National Centre of Contemporary Art, Moscow; Fundacion La Caixa, Madrid; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; and the Uppsala Konstmuseum, Sweden. Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at the Ku?nstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and the Palais de Tokyo, Paris. A mid-career survey, Tony Matelli: A Human Echo, premiered at the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark in 2012 and traveled to the Bergen Kunstmuseum, Norway in 2013. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, and is represented by Marlborough Chelsea, New York and Andreéhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm.

Curated by Lisa Fischman, Ruth Gordon Shapiro ’37 Director of the Davis, Tony Matelli: New Gravity and the accompanying catalogue, designed by the artist with Conny Purtill, are generously supported by Wellesley College Friends of Art and the Anonymous ’70 Endowed Davis Museum Program Fund.

Davis Museum, Wellesley College
106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481
www.wellesley.edu/davismuseum/

Previous post about TONY MATELLY on Wanafoto :
Tony Matelli - A HUMAN ECHO, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark, 31 August - 30 December 2012

Ron Mueck, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Directions--Ron Mueck
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC
July 18 - October 27, 2002

“Directions--Ron Mueck,” featuring four startlingly hyperrealistic, out-of-scale figures by the Australian-born, London-based artist (b. 1958), opens at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. 

The exhibition is the artist’s first American museum solo show and marks the return of the popular “Untitled (Big Man)” (2000) from the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection. Also on view are sculptures of a miniature newborn and a colossal sleeping mask, as well as of a diminutive old woman in bed that has never been exhibited in the United States.

“Ron Mueck’s sculptures, though inanimate, seem alive---eyes are wet, vessels swell with blood, and you can almost feel the heat and breath emanating off the body,” says Sidney Lawrence, exhibition curator. The skewed sizes of the figures give this realism a psychological edge, which, according to Lawrence, “stirs our imagination while grounding us in the physical world.”

Born in Melbourne, the artist has practiced his craft since childhood, when he fabricated his own playthings. Although never formally trained as an artist, Ron Mueck continued to develop his considerable skills working as an animatronics technician and model maker for children’s television, motion picture special effects and the advertising industry first in Australia (from the late 1970s to mid-1980s) and then Great Britain (from the mid-1980s on).

Ron Mueck turned to sculpture in the mid-1990s after making a half-size Pinocchio figure, which served as a model for the painter Paula Rego, his mother-in-law, and was displayed beside Rego’s Disney-inspired canvases in the exhibition “Spellbound: Art and Film” at the Hayward Gallery, London.

Among the first public exhibitions of the artist’s work was “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection,” a 1997 London show also seen in New York, that included Mueck’s unforgiving “Dead Dad” (1997). More recently, Ron Mueck created a 15-foot-high crouching “Boy” to fill the cavernous space of London’s Millennium Dome (2000); it reappeared at the multinational Arsenale section of the Venice Biennale in 2001. During the summer of that same year, Ron Mueck first exhibited his work in the United States in a New York gallery.

Although the artist has largely relied on photographic sources, a current residency at the National Gallery in London has enabled him to work from live models. “Untitled (Big Man),” a hairless, glaring figure with ponderous rolls of blotchy skin, was a product of such a life study; other works have evolved differently. The alien-looking, wall-mounted “Untitled (Baby)” (2000) was influenced both by family experiences and devotional masterpieces in the National Gallery. “Mask II” (2001), measuring nearly 4 feet from chin to furrowed brow, is a self-portrait of the artist’s slumbering head on its side. “Untitled (Old Woman in Bed)” (2000) is Ron Mueck’s poignant remembrance of the final days of his wife’s much loved grandmother.

The artist spends months modeling his figures in clay on armatures built from metal and chicken-wire to create forms which he eventually casts in fiberglass resin or silicon. Ron Mueck completes a work by painting in specific details like blemishes, and adding elements such as resin eyeballs and strands of monofilament, which are drilled or punched individually into surfaces to represent eyelashes, eyebrows, stubble and hair.

As part of the Smithsonian’s Thursday “Art Night” festivities on July 18, Sidney Lawrence, exhibition curator and Hirshhorn head of public affairs, will discuss Ron Mueck’s (pronounced Mew-ick) sculpture in a gallery talk at 7 p.m. On Sunday, Sept. 22 at 3 p.m., curators Merry Foresta and Arthur Wheelock and critic Blake Gopnik will join Lawrence for a panel discussion titled “What is Realism?,” inspired by the artist’s work.

HIRSHHORN MUSEUM & SCULPTURE GARDEN
Independence Avenue and Seventh Street S.W., Washington, DC
www.hirshhorn.si.edu