The Catherine Putman gallery is delighted to announce the new exhibition of Geneviève Asse, « works on paper 1954-2012 ».

Geneviève Asse is a major character of the French painting to whom the Centre Pompidou is currently dedicating her an exhibition*. She always had a predilection for the paper : the drawing, the print and the book.

For this new exhibition the gallery chose to show different aspects of her work on paper and thus will be presenting at the same time old and recent works created with different techniques.

The practice of the drawing appears early in the artist's work alongside her painting and her etching practice. A wide anthology of her work on paper from various periods is shown in the exhibition.

The two older drawings dated 1954 and 1962 deal with space and light and are very pure. Afterwards at the end of the 60's the artist realized some scrubbings on large drawing notebook sheets. She then uses charcoal and red chalk in the compositions that she produced in 2000.

More recently during the summer of 2012 Geneviève Asse created a series of small format works in her studio of the Ile aux Moines in Brittany. The drawings are mixing painting, Conté pencil and Indian ink applied on the paper with a rule or a nib pen. In the "horizons" oils made on Canson paper the artist enjoys using this same deep blue than she uses in her larger paintings.

Although in the latter works we can still observe the space composition and the importance of light, some figurative elements like leafs and flowers tend to appear. They are related to nature observation as well as the "horizons" paintings.

The etching is one of Geneviève Asse's others mediums of preference. The Cabinet des estampes (Print Room) of the Musée d'art et d'histoire of Geneva and the National Library of France which both are important institutions have dedicated exhibitions to her etchings in 1998 and 2002. The Catalogue Raisonné « Geneviève Asse "l'oeuvre imprimé" 1942-1997 » (**) was published on the occasion of the Geneva exhibition.

The gallery presents a set of dry points, aquatints and lithographs. Geneviève Asse is currently working on new etchings for the Catherine Putman gallery who has been publishing her printed work since the end of the 90's and these etchings will therefore be unveiled for the exhibition.

* « Geneviève Asse, paintings » : Gallery of the Museum – Centre Pompidou until 9^th September 2013.

** « Geneviève Asse "l'oeuvre imprimé" 1942-1997 », Rainer Michael Mason, Cabinet des estampes (Print Room) the Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, 1998.