Galleries in Paris

For Bernard Moninot’s first solo show at the gallery we are delighted to be presenting three recent series: Terminal, Antichambre and À la poursuite des nuages.

« Bernard Moninot’s work fits none of the major categories. While it uses pigment, it does not emerge as painting; while it occupies space, it does not invite perception as sculpture; and last of all it is not really what is understood by installation. The most accurate description would be that it is a kind of drawing – but extended drawing (in Novalis’s sense of ‘extended poetry’). »

The works making up Antichambre (Anteroom) take their inspiration from a drawing in space, a « sculpture of silence » dating from 2011. This three-dimensional grouping of circular two-way mirrors was set in motion by an electric motor and projected light and shadows on the walls. The different-sized circles provided a sonogram of the word « silence ».

The pictures making up the series are stills from an image of this work in rotation, and comprise two planes set into a frame, forming a box whose ground is painted. In the foreground tinted silk acts as a screen. The primary concern of the series is colour.

The series of drawings À la poursuite des nuages (In Pursuit of Clouds) was made in the artist’s studio in Château-Chalon. At 500 metres above sea level, the studio enjoys a panoramic view of the sky and the surrounding landscape. As if drawing a performance, or writing, the artist observes the clouds and in a left-to-right movement transposes their progress onto paper as the wind elongates them. Each fresh look corresponds to a move to the next line on the paper. The passing of time is indicated by the minutes noted at the beginning of each new line.

The last series, Terminal, was begun in 2013. Here three large works are accompanied by medium-size ones. These are pictures of airport boarding lounges – those in-between, time-killing spaces – and are a tribute to El Lissitzky, the Russian Constructivist. Made up of two layers of silk a few centimetres apart, they use linear interplay and primary colour transparency to generate a feeling of movement. Another result, as in the Antichambre series, is optical fusion of colours.

« Drawing is the characteristic aspect of my work. Since the 1980s I’ve moved away somewhat from traditional ideas of gestural marks or imprints on paper, towards hitherto untried media. This in turn has led me to explore natural phenomena, sound waves, resonances, shadows, light, etc. »