An overview 1950 - 2010

60 years of contructive art in France - Prolongation until may, 22nd

Exposition passéeDu 11 mars au 30 avril 2010

Since many years Galerie Lahumière represents artists from the constructive mouvement. Unfortunately France, on the contrary to Germany, has always been reticent to approach this tendency. This art form has been existing before 1914 and continued to develop and transform itself throughout the XXth century more than any other mouvement. Neither cubism, nor surrealism have had this capacity. Constructivism had since Mondrian and Malevitch a major influence on architecture and design, influence that is still its force.

At our booth we are inviting the Museum am Kulturspeicher from Würzburg (Germany) with paintings from the collection of Peter C. Ruppert “concrete european art after 1945” which comprises about 300 art works. Peter Ruppert suggested to exhibit the artist Günter Fruhtrunk, well represented in his collection. Fruhtrunk a friend of Jean Arp and influenced by Auguste Herbin lived many years in Paris, and is in many major international Museums, it is only natural that we show him to the french public. Our own collection and the artists of the gallery recall the collection of this museum. The theme of our booth will be an echo of the show in the gallery : “An overview 1950/2010, 60 years of contructive art in France”. Victor Vasarely will be shown with a small retrospective, together with artists of his generation, such as Auguste Herbin, Alberto Magnelli, Jean Dewasne, Jean Leppien, Aurélie Nemours, Gottfried Honegger and the contemporaries : Jean-François Dubreuil, Jean-Gabriel Coignet, Charles Bézie, Antoine Perrot, Hans-Jörg Glattfelder, Henri Prosi etc.

By the early 1960s Vasarely was developing his own visual alphabet, which he also dubbed “planetary folklore.” This alphabet, inspired by Herbin (see his rough notes of 1973) enabled Vasarely to decompose an image into multiple, regular geometric pieces, called “visual units.” Each piece of this puzzle could be lifted and inserted at another point in the composition. A series of multiples and sculptures were conceived using this approach, as were major architectural projects such as a university dormitory in Caracas and a teacher’s school in
Essen, not to mention a huge fresco in Montparnasse station in Paris and various private applications.

In the years that followed, Vasarely tirelessly, significantly pursued his kinetic ideas. He served as a mentor to many artists of the younger generation, and his once disdained works now appeal to a new public.
This little retrospective of selected works is designed to provide visitors to the show with a new perspective on Victor Vasarely and his art. We also hope to shed a new light on his entourage, starting with his contemporaries and continuing into the current generation of French artists, who are once again raising and exploring the issue of a geometric art construct.

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An overview 1950 - 2010 . 60 years of contructive art in France - Prolongation until may, 22nd