MARISA MERZ

Marisa Merz passed away last Friday at the age of 93.

The Italian artist was the only woman in the Arte Povera movement that began in the late 1960s.

Quite discrete, she however was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and a big retrospective started in 2017 at the The Hammer Museum, The Sky Is a Great Space and moved to New York, Los Angeles, Saltzburg, Austria and Porto (why not Paris ?).

I like her work of remarkable finesse and poetry. 

I particularly like all her sculptureMarisa Merz passed away last Friday at the age of 93.

The Italian artist was the only woman in the Arte Povera movement that began in the late 1960s.

Quite discrete, she however was awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and a big retrospective started in 2017 at the The Hammer Museum, The Sky Is a Great Space and moved to New York, Los Angeles, Saltzburg, Austria and Porto (why not Paris ?).

I like her work of remarkable finesse and poetry. 

I particularly like all her sculptures made of delicate meshes. 

I bind her work to Eva Hesse's, between drawings, sculptures and sensual installations.

Marisa Merz, Untitled, 1979

Marisa Merz : The Sky is a Great Space

Marisa Merz : The Sky is a Great Space, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art 
Photo : Filipe Braga

Marisa Merz : The Sky is a Great Space, Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art
Photo : Filipe Braga

Read More

THE FLOATING PIERS

Don't know how I did not heard about this work by Christo which has been realized only 3 years ago.
I love their work so much !
Floating Piers is a project imagined by the couple in the 1970s but they didn't find the right place for this somptuous project.

What I like most about their work is that their installations in situ are always accessible to everyone. 

In the case of Floating Piers, people can walk there. 

There is a real social dimension. 

As Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, Christo finalized this work without her. 

This is an "extension of the streets" according to the Bulgarian artist. 

In Lombardy, floating bridges have been deployed on several kilometers on the Lake Iseo. 

This huge bright yellow bridge made with more than a thousand floating platforms invited visitors to stroll on the water between the village of Sulzano and the island of San Paolo and the island of Monte Isola.

Read More

JIM OLSON

Olson Kundig Architects has been raised in Seattle in the late 1960s by Jim Olson.
His language explores the relationship between nature and habitation.
His work makes me think about Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto or Louis Kahn for the Esherick House.

 

Read More

JUDIT REIGL

Love this artist (born in 1923, she's still alive !) and her incredible life and work.
The serie of paintings Guano are my favourites.

Guano

Guano n°2

 

Guano

Read More

SAUL BASS

Saul Bass (1920-1996) was one of the most famous graphic designer in the world.
You have seen his art work on many movies credits.
The Seven Year Itch, Hitchcock's Psycho, West Side Story, Casino...
This short documentary remains us his great work !

Psycho

West Side Story

Octopussy

Read More

AGNES MARTIN

Switching in English as some people asked me...

This interview is about creativity
time
getting older
inspiration
following her own path.

Great artist
Great woman

Agnes Martin, Galleries, 1961

Agnes Martin, Happy Holiday, 1999, acrylic paint and graphite on canvas

                                                              Agnes Martin, 'Gratitude', 2001, Tate Modern

Read More

LE KUDZU PROJECT, HELENE SCHMITZ

Quelle drôle de plante !
C'est en faisant des recherches sur le travail de l'artiste suédoise Helene Schmitz que j'ai découvert cette plante dont je n'avais jamais entendu parler jusqu'à présent !
En provenance du Japon, le kudzu fut introduit aux États-Unis en 1876 à des fins purement décoratives.
En effet, ses racines tapissent rapidement les jardins de verdure.
Dès les années 1930, elle est utilisée en masse afin de maintenir l'érosion des sols en Alabama, Géorgie et dans le Mississippi.
Cependant, le kudzu pouvant croître jusqu’à 30 cm par jour, a vite posé des problèmes et aujourd'hui encore, de nombreuses zones sont envahies par cette plante vorace.
Helene Schmitz est une artiste qui s'intéresse aux rapports entre les hommes et la nature.
Connue pour ses installations, elle s'est davantage positionnée comme spectatrice pour sa série intitulée Kudzu Project.
C'est donc en Géorgie et en Alabama que l'artiste a pris ces clichés, qu'elle a choisi de tirer en argentique.
Je trouve ses photographies à la fois fantomatiques et mystérieuses.

Alabama Fields

The Garden

The Highway View

Pour la petite histoire, je vous ai mis un documentaire datant de 1996 qui explique ce phénomène.

Read More