Engraving, 2019

Edition : 5/50

69.00 cm. x 91.00 cm. | 27.17 in. x 35.83 in. (paper)

44.00 cm. x 69.50 cm. | 17.32 in. x 27.36 in. (image)

Bernar Venet, born in 1941, is one of the few French artists whose career began in New York in the mid-1960s. At that time, he lived and worked at the mythical Chelsea Hotel, which welcomed artists and musicians in a creative effervescence. Bernar Venet was close to the best conceptual artists: Judd, Heizer, Lewitt, Stella... Far from the abstract expressionism that almost looked like official art in the United States, these artists practiced a refined and minimalist art. In a career spanning sixty years, Bernard Venet has practiced sculpture, poetry, painting and engraving. His works in corten steel, sometimes gigantic, are unforgettable. They were disposed in the gardens of the Château de Versailles in 2011 and can be seen at MoMA, the Centre Pompidou, in Strasbourg or Tokyo, and in the public space.
The title of the print we propose, Random Combination of Indetermine Lines, is also the title of an important series of sculptures that began in the early 1990s: the artist and his team lay out heavy corten steel rods on the ground.
In the Collapses series, these gigantic arches are placed on the ground and then pushed against each other and fall to the ground, creating a seemingly random arrangement that is nonetheless subject to physical principles such as inevitable gravity.
This print is the tangible memory of the artist's sculptures, as if it represents the moment just after the fall. Moreover, the background is studded with lines that indicate vibrations, those caused by the fall of arches whose weight is gigantic.
There is in this combination power and elegance, stability and balance. A very interesting and stimulating mixture of opposites.

Excellent condition
Handsigned by the artist in pencil
Certificate of authenticity

Ref : LCD5444