THE EXHIBITION DEDICATED TO THE CREATOR OF ART BRUT INAUGURATES AT PALAZZO FRANCHETTI
PAINTING and sculpture as a result of an expressiveness foreign to the dominant culture in the 1900s; the result is a free art, freed from traditional bonds that is perfectly embodied with the intense strength of Jean Dubuffet (Le Havre, 1901 - Paris, 1985), the first to introduce the concept of Art Brut, placing the accent on genuine aspect of spontaneous artistic manifestations and in particular assuming as a basic element for his works the use of new materials such as plaster, gravel and tar instead of traditional ones. The pieces, strong of experimentation and research, cross the avant-gardes and the postwar period,
His works (prices range from 500,000 to 12 million euros) are icons known and appreciated all over the world and, from 10 May, they can be admired at Palazzo Franchetti, in Venice, in the Jean Dubuffet exhibition in Venice curated by Sophie Webel and Frédéric Jaeger. The exhibition also wants to remember the importance of two other famous exhibitions which, precisely in the lagoon city, marked the artist's path: at Palazzo Grassi in 1964 and at the French pavilion of the Biennale in 1984. This exhibition presents the three most important cycles. important by Dubuffet, from the series Célébration du sol, in which the artist deepened his research on the effects of matter in the 1950s and to which the Matériologies and Texturologies belong, to the L'Hoiurloupe cycle, the true core of his research, up to the Mires series, with paintings with fluid brushstrokes in vibrant colors that closes the 80's and the artist's life.
Dr. Franco Calarota, what role do you play in this exhibition?
<< As president of ACP, the company that manages Palazzo Franchetti, a prestigious fifteenth-century location overlooking the Grand Canal, I organized this exhibition-event together with my collaborators, with whom we have decided on a program of exhibitions that have a relationship with Venice >>:
Why the choice of Palazzo Franchetti?
<< It is a palace in the center of Venice, at the foot of the Accademia bridge, with halls on the main floor perfect for this new exhibition reality, which is part of the cultural panorama of Venice alongside other important museum institutions such as Palazzo Grassi, Museo Correr and Guggenheim, Cini Foundation. In the coming years in this building we will curate exhibitions with an ever-changing cut, which allow the visitor a particular reflection >>.
Is it an exhibition for cultural purposes only and not for sales?
<< Certainly. We only promote cultural and non-commercial events >>
Why start with Dubuffet?
<< He is one of the great protagonists of the twentieth century, a revolutionary who makes experimentation his distinctive trait, his art continues to ask questions and proves to be relevant even in our contemporaneity. With the masterful L'Hourloupe cycle, Dubuffet questions our perception of the world and recreates a parallel universe. With the Mires series he reveals the "prodigious youth and freedom of an 83-year-old artist", as the curators write in the catalog published by Five Continents Editions >>.
Where do the works come from?
<< The 100 works on display come from the Dubuffet Foundation, involved in the curatorship, from the Gandur Foundations of Geneva, the Bailer of Basel, the Guggenheim of Venice and many private collectors >>.
The last part of the review consists of a selection ...
<< Of drawings, gouache and documents testifying to the exhibitions of '64 and '84, accompanied by photographs, letters and articles >>.
Next exhibition?
<< Morandi and Rothko >>.