Exhibition - Claude Viallat "Avatar 2005-2025

This exhibition follows on from the one presented at the Hôtel des Arts in 2005, and is also a tribute to Jean Fournier (1922-2006), Viallat's dealer from 1967 to 1997. Curated by Michel Hilaire. Opening on 12/19 at 6pm.

A major figure on the French art scene for over half a century, Claude Viallat lives and works in Nîmes. In many of the works presented in the exhibition, Claude Viallat maltreats form, not hesitating to crop it, shred it or turn it in all directions.

As early as 1966, the artist perfected a pictorial system - to which he has remained attached - that enabled him at once to evacuate the problem of representation: use of a form as neutral as possible, evoking a palette or a skeleton, which comes into contact with various supports, appended as such to the work: bed sheets, tent canvases, curtains, parasols, armchair bottoms, etc...

The form, always the same, seems to play on every difficulty. The problem that fascinates me," admits the artist, "is the way color is taken up, penetrates and reacts according to the nature of the support. The more the system seems blocked, the more the artist tries to get around the obstacle, to find a way out of the impasse in which he finds himself. The most important thing for him, in the course of his work, is to make the right decision and open up to all possibilities. He likes to play with the notion of full and empty through unexpected and incongruous combinations.

As he puts it, "My painting proliferates, it bursts, it goes off in all directions. There are moments when the work is taut and rigorous, and there are moments when it's loose and then rigorous again, and so on (...) I try to play with taste, and with bad taste too. I try to play with everything that makes up the problems of painting".

Sensuality is paramount in this work, which follows in the footsteps of the great masters of color, from Delacroix through the Fauves (Derain, Matisse, Chabaud) to Simon HantaÏ. Under the title "Avatars", he was the instigator of several group exhibitions bringing together the gallery's leading figures (James Bishop, Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell, Shirley Jaffe and Claude Viallat himself) as well as the younger generation.

Guided tours: Wednesday and Saturday at 3 pm (no reservation necessary).