BERNARD MONINOT: ENLARGED DRAWINGS

The Fondation Maeght presents from the 12th of March to the 12th of June 2022 a monographic exhibition dedicated to the French artist Bernard Moninot, first exhibited at the Foundation in 1979.

Curator : Olivier Delavallade

In the 1980s, Bernard Moninot redefined his work by integrating the spatial dimensions traditionally linked to drawing, with experimental research through which the artist looks into the possibilities offered by certain phenomena, such as shadows, to produce visible forms of time. The artist renounces the idea of artistic mastery, and naturally assimilated his work to the natural sphere: light, shade, wind, sound… The studio becomes an observatory first, and then a laboratory for experimentation.

From 2005 onwards, Bernard Moninot’s work deals with more complex issues: he combines three notions that constitute an artistic program: chance, the unconscious, and intuition. His installations become progressively more autobiographical. They start to be accompanied by preparatory drawings, but also by more autonomous drawings made simultaneously after the installations. The creative process evolves to until it becomes the main subject, linked to the development of time. In his diaries, the artist records small events, “a lighter way of bringing the time of life into my work”, he writes.

The display at La Fondation Maeght will feature seven large installations created over the past ten years: Antichambre, Ensecrètement, Lumière fossile, Objets de silence, Chambre d’écho, Point de rosée and Mémoire du Vent, as well as works that the artist has created especially for this presentation.