Seeing Dewasne Anew

Prolongation

ActualitéDu 17 octobre au 20 décembre 2014

As early as the 1950s, Dewasne opted for glycerophtalic gloss paints, on a support of isorel hardboard or metal, which offered superior qualities of shininess and intensity, and reflected the radiance of a mechanized world. The importance he paid to materials for his work is characteristic of his concern “to not be idle*”. In his Treaties on Flat Painting, he recommended the consultation of treatises on colorimetry, photometry, and the physiology of vision. This materialist approach justified the path of abstraction and the refusal to imitate for the benefit of the formal possibilities of the work. The interaction between the artist and his materials anchored abstract painting in a concrete relationship with reality : “All of Nature is present in painting, in the media used, and in the laws that react on each other, and in the phenomena that agitate them.*”

* : excerpt from Treaties on Flat Painting, Jean Dewasne - Presentation Gérard Denizeau Editions Minerve Paris 2007

Text by Ariane Coulondre excerpt from the catalogue Jean Dewasne - Museums Matisse, Le Cateau-Cis, LAAC, Dunkerque and Cambrai. Editions Somogy 2014

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Seeing Dewasne Anew. Prolongation