For this exhibition, the gallery has decided to bring together the works of Knopp Ferro,
Imi Knoebel, Bernard Moninot, Carmen Perrin, and Georges Rousse, based on the theme of composition. The works selected for this exhibition: drawings, sculptures, photographs, and collages are compositions of lines and assemblies of forms and colours.
Knopp Ferro's mobile works float in space or in a coloured space delineated by an acrylic glass box, and consist of assemblies of iron lines that are always slightly in movement, which characterises the work of this post-minimalist Austrian artist.
In the drawing "Tracés, nos lignes de fuite" ("Traces: lines of flight", 2016), Carmen Perrin joins up the countless perforations of a colour drawing with straight lines drawn with a ruler. She refers to them as "lines of fligh", as conceived by Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze In A Thousand Plateaus (Mille Plateaux, Editions de Minuit, Paris, 1980): "We must invent our lines of flight, if we are able, and the only way we can invent them is by effectively drawing them, in our lives"; she reinterprets this philosophic concept via her plastic transposition.
In the series "Mémoire fossile" (Fossil memory), Bernard Moninot has invented constellations, and has used acrylic lines to link together hundreds of Pentacrines* found in the Jura.
In Las Vegas (2016), Georges Rousse has once again combined architecture, sculpture, painting, and photography. The choice of viewing angle has enabled the artist to fuse the vanishing lines in perspective, in a space transformed by an abstract construction in colour.
Far from the idea of perspective, but rather in a quest for equilibrium between form
and colour-a fundamental aspect of his work- Imi Knoebel's series of "Positions" are
spaces composed of an assembly of painted rectangles and small floating elements of
varying dimensions and in an infinite variety of tones and colours.
*Fossils dating from 200 millions years ago
KNOPP FERRO
Born in 1953 at Bensberg, Cologne, in Germany.
He currently lives and works in Ammersee, near Munich.
As a sculptor, Knopp Ferro has developed an approach characterised by lightness,
movement, and transparency, with his mobile works made of iron rods. For him, drawing, which he has practised since the 1990s, is also a movement in itself.
Ink drawings complement his sculptural work, without being preparatory; and drawings executed with knives, which highlight the plasticity of the paper, create relief and thereby evoke sculpture.
His work is presented by the Dan Galeria in São Paulo and the Cayon Gallery in Madrid; he has had several solo exhibitions, namely at Louis Stern Fine Arts, in Los Angeles and the Thomas Gallery in Munich.
www.kferro.com
IMI KNOEBEL
Born in 1940 in Dessau (Germany)
He lives and works in Dusseldorf.
A major figure in German abstract art, Imi Knoebel always employs colour and volume.
Imi Knoebel's work is characterised by colour and construction. His pictures and
paper works always contain volumes, composed of regular and irregular forms
squares, rectangle, and crosses, which he assembles and superposes. He places
objects in space with great liberty and subversively transforms them into something
entirely different.
A unique German artist, he is influenced by the artistic conceptions of Malevich and
Mondrian. Between 1964 and 1971, he studied at the Kunstakademie in Du?sseldorf,
working in Joseph Beuys's studio with Jörg Immendorff and Blinky Palermo.
His works are held in numerous collections, such as that of the MoMA and the Dia
Art Foundation (New York), the Albertina (Vienna), and the FRAC (Regional Fund for
Contemporary Art) in Paris.
In parallel with his recent solo exhibitions in the Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc
Jean in Luxembourg in 2010, and in the Neue National Galerie and the Guggenheim
Foundation in Berlin in 2009, Imi Knoebel created (between 2009 and 2011) six
stained glass windows that extend over a surface area of 128 m2; they surround
those executed by Chagall in the apse of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Reims.
He has taken part in numerous group exhibitions such as the Documenta
(nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8) in Kassel.
BERNARD MONINOT
Born in 1949 at Le Fay.
He lives and works in Pré Saint Gervais and Château-Chalon.
?Bernard Moninot's work cannot be categorised as a particular art form. Although it
includes the use of pigments, it is not strictly painting, and although it has a spatial
dimension it cannot be viewed from a sculptural point of view, and lastly it cannot
really be defined as an installation. The only thing one can say with any certainty is
that it is a form of drawing, but ?enlarged drawing? (just as Novalis spoke of "enlarged
poetry") J. C. Bailly
His works are held in many public collections: the Bilbliothèque Nationale, the Cabinet
Graphique in the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Contemporary Art Collection
in the town of Vitry, the Maeght Foundation, Saint-Paul de Vence, and the Municipal
Collection of Contemporary Art of the City of Geneva; the FRACs (Regional Fund
for Contemporary Art) in Alsace, Picardy, Franche-Comté, Auvergne, PACA, Champagne Ardennes, and the Reunion Island; the Fine Arts Museum in Dôle, the Fine
Arts Museum in Angers, the Boymans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam, the
Musée Cantini, Marseille, the Musée de Carcassonne, the Royal Fine Arts Museums
of Belgium in Brussels, the Musée de Strasbourg, and the Musée National d'Art
Moderne; the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Menil Foundation in Houston,
the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Chandigarh University Museum,
and so on.
www.bernardmoninot.com
CARMEN PERRIN
Born in 1953 at La Paz, Bolivia.
She currently lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland, and in France.
Carmen Perrin has forged a career as a sculptor and regularly undertakes projects in
public spaces. She creates works that articulate the relation between light, materials, and the architectural and social qualities of public spaces. In 2005, she decided to stop her teaching work and entirely devote herself to developing her artistic work.
She is currently working on projects related to public spaces, and in her studio she is
experimenting with an approach that combines the practice of sculpture with that of
drawing.
In 2014, she was appointed as a member of the Comité de Patronage de la Distinction
Romande d'Architecture 2014 (with Daniel Berset, a federal councillor, Philippe Biéler,
Central President of Swiss Heritage, and Werner Jeker, a graphic designer).
In 2015, La Maison de l?Amérique Latine held a solo exhibition of her work, in partnership with Galerie Catherine Putman, and she was awarded the "Prix Culturel 2015 Pour les Arts Plastiques" by the Leenaards Foundation.
www.carmenperrin.com
GEORGES ROUSSE
Born in 1947 in Paris.
He lives and works in Paris.
Georges Rousse was born in 1947 in Paris, where he currently lives and works.
As part of the Figuration Libre movement, the artist began by representing human figures in architectural spaces. Today, his works simultaneously combine photography, drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture. He works in abandoned spaces that are destined to be demolished, transforming them into a pictorial space, using optical illusions to construct unique, ephemeral works that can only be captured in photographs. He has worked and exhibited around the world.
Since his first exhibition in Paris in the Galerie de France in 1981, Georges Rousse
has tirelessly exhibited his work and undertaken projects in many countries: in Europe,
Asia (Japan, Korea, China, and Nepal), the United States, Quebec, Latin America, and so on.
www.georgesrousse.com
Composition
June 11 - July 22, 2016