One of the pioneers of virtual artMiguel Chevalier, born in Mexico in 1959, is a French artist and pioneer of digital and virtual art. Trained at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, he has been developing a revolutionary oeuvre on the edges of immateriality since 1978. Miguel Chevalier's work takes a variety of forms: monumental-scale digital installa tions, 3D printing and laser-cut sculptures, robot drawings and virtual reality models. Using software designed by computer experts, this visionary artist creates generative and interactive installations that invite visitors to explore the space in a sensory way: in Magic Carpets and Extra-Natural the patterns and colours change as visitors walk around. Nature is a recurring theme in Miguel Chevalier's work, whose latest creation, Meta-Natura AI, projects onto the walls of Dongdaemun Design Plaza - one of Seoul's landmark buildings - flowers created by a generative AI, which proliferate and die. But this creative enthusiasm does not overlook the risks of technology, especially the dangers of urbanisation and the duality of flows and networks that fuel both infinite connections and insidious isolation. Miguel Chevalier's oeuvre is experimental and multidisciplinary. Taking references from the history of art and reformulating them using computer tools, his works inves tigate and explore recurrent themes such as nature and artifice, flows and networks, virtual cities and ornate designs. His images are a rich source of insights into ourselves and our relationship with the world.
The work of the young artist with an international career who employes collaging and traditional painting techniquesBorn in 1989 in Lagos, Nigeria, Marcellina Akpojotor engaged in drawing, design, stencil work, and calligraphy at an early age under her father's guidance. Later, she pursued formal education in Art and Industrial Design at the Lagos State Polytechnic, further honing her skills and broadening her artistic horizons. Akpojotor's art fascinates audiences worldwide through its thought-provoking narra tives and unique media, creating an aesthetic that mixes politics and intimacy around culture, identity, and feminism. Employing a captivating blend of collaging and traditional painting techniques, Akpojotor's creations are marked by rich textures, layered compositions, and com pelling, colourful visual imagery, delving into themes such as femininity, personal and societal identity, and women's empowerment. She transforms primarily discarded piec es of Ankara fabric, sourced from local fashion houses, into powerful canvases akin to "intriguing tapestries of twitchy and alluring tactile surfaces", as Professor Frank Ugiomoh writes in his essay.
A complete monograph on a major artist and representative of Moroccan modernityAbdelkébir Rabi' was born in 1944 amidst the heights of Boulemane, Morocco's high est town. After training at the École Normale in Fez, he taught art and aesthetics in high school and then at the university until 2003. Born into a line of imams, Abdelkébir Rabi' challenges the anti-iconic principles he has inherited, seeking to reconcile artistic fervour and spiritual fulfilment. Rabi' began to paint in a figurative style and was gradually moving towards an abstract painting in the 1970s. Inspired as much by the grandeur of the Middle Atlas mountains as by artists such as Marc Couturier and Antoni Tàpies, Abdelkébir Rabi's work is a universal, meditative and contemplative quest. It unfolds in an infinite array of blacks of varying degrees of opacity, symbolising the interplay between light and shadow, figuration and abstrac tion, fullness and emptiness, the seen and the unseen. Each black line, often executed in a single gesture, contributes to create a pure and profound work, imbued with spirit uality. Rabi' sees art as "a personal matter", and his solitary approach underlines his dedication to art. This detailed monograph enriches the "Archives des Arts" collection directed by Brahim Alaoui and dedicated to contemporary and modern North African artists such as Mohamed Hamidi, Farid Belkahia, Ghada Amer and Mohamed Melehi.
A compelling insight into the life of one of the most iconic models in the world of 20th-century fashion Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn (1911-1992) was a dancer, photographer, stylist and sculptor, but above all one of the most emblematic models of the 20th-century fashion world. She worked with the greatest fashion photographers of her time from 1935 to 1955: Richard Avedon, Erwin Blumenfeld, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Fernand Fonssagrives, Toni Frissel, Horst P. Horst, whose favourite model she was, George Hoyningen-Huene, Frances Mclaughlin-Gill, Irving Penn, Georges Platt-Lynes, John Rowlings, etc. She was the first model to feature on the cover of Time magazine in September 1949. Wife of Irving Penn from 1950 until her death in 1992, she was, according to Alexander Liberman, artistic director of Vogue magazine, the subject of his greatest photographs. The MEP exhibition and accompanying catalogue will feature around 150 original vintage prints from her personal collection. Some of these images were published in Vogue France, Vogue US or Harper's Bazaar, and many are previously unpublished, including a large number of photographs of Fernand Fonssagrives, her first husband, and more private portraits taken by Irving Penn. An intimate and astonishing collection, with most of the prints revealed to the general public for the first time.
The first monograph on the major contemporary artistBorn in Los Angeles in 1965, Jeff Kowatch has developed a demanding and subtle technique, inspired as much by Mark Rothko and Brice Marden as by the Flemish painters, from whom he borrows his mastery of glazing. On the canvas, he can overlay up to a hundred layers of paint, endlessly scraped, sanded and covered, which acquire an almost mystical depth and transparency. His works are inhabited by patches of colour that press and agglomerate on the support. Organised into series, his work also includes numerous drawings on paper in oil pastel and, since 2017, oilbar on dibond. His works forge numerous connections with literary and spiritual sources of inspiration.
A Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation AwardCreated in 2021, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation Environmental Photography Award serves a dual purpose: to celebrate the extraordinary beauty of our planet and to raise awareness of the major challenges we face in protecting it. These photographers take us on a pictorial journey from the polar ice caps to the secret canopies, showing both the devasteting effects of human activity and the courage of communities working for a sustainable world. Founded in 2006 by HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco, the Foundation is a global non-profit organisation committed to progressing planetary health for current and future generations by co-creating initiatives and supporting hundreds of projects across our precious planet.
Jewellery and Islamic art, the interweaving of masterpieces The book explores the influence of Islamic art on the production of jewelry and precious objects by Cartier, from the early 20th century to the present day. Jewellery and objects from the Cartier collection, masterpieces of Islamic art, drawings, books, photographs and archival documents trace the diversity of sources that inspired the forms and motifs used in Cartier creations. Sometimes easily identifiable, at other times decomposed and recomposed to the point of rendering their source untraceable, motifs and forms from Islamic art and architecture have integrated the stylistic language of designers to the point of constituting part of Cartier's repertoire to this day, illustrated by contemporary jewelry pieces that complete this journey. The mandorlas, palmettes, fleurons, rinceaux, sequins of Cartier jewelry are inspired in turn by motifs found in book bindings, oriental architecture and antique and contemporary jewelry purchased by Jacques Cartier during his expeditions to India. A true immersion in Cartier's creative process, this book documents the renewal of the iconic jewelry house's forms and manufacturing techniques.
Jewellery and Islamic art, the interweaving of masterpieces The book explores the influence of Islamic art on the production of jewelry and precious objects by Cartier, from the early 20th century to the present day. Jewellery and objects from the Cartier collection, masterpieces of Islamic art, drawings, books, photographs and archival documents trace the diversity of sources that inspired the forms and motifs used in Cartier creations. Sometimes easily identifiable, at other times decomposed and recomposed to the point of rendering their source untraceable, motifs and forms from Islamic art and architecture have integrated the stylistic language of designers to the point of constituting part of Cartier¿s repertoire to this day, illustrated by contemporary jewelry pieces that complete this journey. The mandorlas, palmettes, fleurons, rinceaux, sequins of Cartier jewelry are inspired in turn by motifs found in book bindings, oriental architecture and antique and contemporary jewelry purchased by Jacques Cartier during his expeditions to India. A true immersion in Cartier¿s creative process, this book documents the renewal of the iconic jewelry house¿s forms and manufacturing techniques.
A complete monograph on the artist shortlisted for the Prix Duchamp 2023. Massinissa Selmani is an artist born in 1980 in Algiers. After studying computer science, he decided to attend the École Supérieure des Beaux Art in Tours. His talent was recognized at the 56th Venice Biennale with a special mention from the jury. His works have joined private and public collections, notably those of the Centre Pompidou and the Musée National d¿Art Moderne in Paris. Massinissa Selmani was awarded the Sam Prize in 2016, which enabled him to exhibit at the Palais de Tokyo. The artist has chosen the omnipresence of current events as the common thread run ning through his work. Documentary drawing is at the root of his artistic practice. Many of his drawings are composed of or inspired by press clippings, in which he takes pleasure in picking out elements likely to serve as a basis for his works, and then juxtaposes them with more absurd and mystical components. In this way, the artist plays with balance, hesitates between fiction and reality, and constructs ambiguous images that trigger mystery, intrigue and reflection in the viewer. The artist gives pride of place to space, to the white of the page. His drawings are airy, surrounded by white margins, like a creative zone left free for the viewer to explore. Context and temporality are left to the viewer, who has fun guessing. Massinissa Selmani¿s art is not limited to the second dimension; he likes to play with relief and often accompanies his wall-hung works with three-dimensional creations. This book pays tribute to the work of an artist who reinvents reality, while at the same time delivering it. Massinissa Selmani never ceases to enjoy blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction.
"I wanted to draw attention to this geometric, rationalized, quantified world." ¿Peter Halley Throughout his career, Peter Halley (b. 1953, New York) has developed a vocabulary derived from geometric abstraction that reflects the contemporary world. His works are inhabited by ¿prisons¿, ¿cells¿ and ¿conduits¿, the result of a personal interpretation of New York society in the 80s and the advent of technology. This vocabulary is used by Peter Halley in all his paintings. Peter Halley has developed a reflection on the alienation of contemporary society, whose members live in cramped spaces (cells or prisons) interconnected by a system of circuits (conduits) encompassing pipes, chimneys, electrical installations and the Internet. The geometric compositions are characterized by an apparent simplicity that makes it tempting to follow the lines of the conduits. Yet, with a sense of humor, the artist sometimes decides to cut the connections, adding to the absurdity of contemporary society. The bright, often fluorescent colors create vibrant paintings that convey a joyful vision of the world. Peter Halley's work has been the subject of numerous recent exhibitions, including at the MUDAM in Luxembourg (2023), the Dallas Contemporary (2021), the Schirn Kunsthall in Frankfurt (2016) and the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain in Saint Etienne (2014). Many institutions have works by Peter Halley in their collections: the MoMA in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Tate in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
"It has become increasingly clear to me that the pleasure of painting lies in the subtle interplay between what the picture shows and what is says" ¿Yves Cler Yves Clerc began his career in drawing and photography, before turning to painting and abstraction, followed by figuration. He offers us a poetic vision of the world, where shimmering colors rub shoulders with flat blacks. Yves Clerc¿s aim is not to tell, but to show. Transparency and its staging are his favorite themes. His works often depict portraits of women, their eyes masked and their expression neutral, to let the whole composition express itself. Yves Clerc loves texture and plays with boundaries: he paints long, crumpled draperies that he creates with a juxtaposition of layers of paint, but also of techniques ¿ oil on canvas, acrylic, drawing, painting on photo. The artist also attaches great importance to resonances between works. He has thus reworked some great paintings in his own way, such as Vermeer¿s Girl With a Pearl Earring, and collaborates with personalities from other artistic backgrounds, such as Irina Vitjaz (a renowned Moscow stylist) and Leïla Menchar (set designer for Hermès). Yves Clerc mainly exhibits at the Bailly Gallery in Geneva, but his work is also regularly shown worldwide: Paris, Mexico City, Moscow, Geneva, London, Brussels, Lisbon, New York and Miami.
A crossroads of civilisations. Located at the crossroads of continents, AlUla has been a fantastic meeting point for civilizations who left behind an abundant heritage. For centuries, its oasis has been a crossing point for caravans on the Incense trade route, which connected Asia, Africa and Europe, transiting spices, myrrh, cotton, ebony, and silk. The oasis city, once named Dedan, has successively been ruled by Ancient North Arabian Kingdoms, then by the Nabataeans, an ancient civilization of Arabian mer chants, founded the ancient city of Hegra ¿ sibling of Petra ¿ whose flagship site Madain Saleh, listed as Unesco world heritage since 2008, houses 138 rocky tombs, sanctuaries, wells, decorated frontages, etc. Then the Roman Empire annexed the Kingdom and marked AlUla Valley with Greek and Latin influence, before Muhammad¿s arrival in 630 A.D. during his campaign against the Byzantine army. Carrying the memory of their predecessors, in the 13th century Muslims reused the stones of the Dedanite and Lihyanite ruins to build what we call today the Old Town of AlUla. All these civilizations stamped the region with their unique culture, leaving exceptional archaeological sites for posterity.
A crossroads of civilisations. Located at the crossroads of continents, AlUla has been a fantastic meeting point for civilizations who left behind an abundant heritage. For centuries, its oasis has been a crossing point for caravans on the Incense trade route, which connected Asia, Africa and Europe, transiting spices, myrrh, cotton, ebony, and silk. The oasis city, once named Dedan, has successively been ruled by Ancient North Arabian Kingdoms, then by the Nabataeans, an ancient civilization of Arabian mer chants, founded the ancient city of Hegra ¿ sibling of Petra ¿ whose flagship site Madain Saleh, listed as Unesco world heritage since 2008, houses 138 rocky tombs, sanctuaries, wells, decorated frontages, etc. Then the Roman Empire annexed the Kingdom and marked AlUla Valley with Greek and Latin influence, before Muhammad¿s arrival in 630 A.D. during his campaign against the Byzantine army. Carrying the memory of their predecessors, in the 13th century Muslims reused the stones of the Dedanite and Lihyanite ruins to build what we call today the Old Town of AlUla. All these civilizations stamped the region with their unique culture, leaving exceptional archaeological sites for posterity.
First monograph of a virtuoso painter. Khalif Tahir Thompson is an African-American painter who has just graduated from The Yale School of Art. His work is populated by black figures set in colourful, shimmering environments that sometimes resemble patchworks verging on abstraction. Yet each of his works seems rooted in reality. The artist manages to imbue his figures with a genuine psychological identity, revealing a meticulous study of the human being. In this way, he reveals himself to be an outstanding portraitist. In his groups of figures, some are posed, while others are taken on the spot, without paying any attention to the painter. All of which adds to the feeling of immediacy of an artist in love with reality. Elsewhere, Khalif Tahir Thompson likes to depict isolated figures dozing in an atmosphere of serenity, despite the obvious vulnerability of his characters. The artist's works are also filled with mysterious letters and numbers. These multiple signs echo the diversity of materials used by the artist. Painting in oils and acrylics, the artist creates his own papers, which he then applies to the canvas. He likes to mix pearls, fabric, velvet, newspaper and leather to create wonderful material effects. This is the first reference monograph on the practice of this very young painter whose work is already prolific.
A crossroads of civilisations. Located at the crossroads of continents, AlUla has been a fantastic meeting point for civilizations who left behind an abundant heritage. For centuries, its oasis has been a crossing point for caravans on the Incense trade route, which connected Asia, Africa and Europe, transiting spices, myrrh, cotton, ebony, and silk. The oasis city, once named Dedan, has successively been ruled by Ancient North Arabian Kingdoms, then by the Nabataeans, an ancient civilization of Arabian mer chants, founded the ancient city of Hegra ¿ sibling of Petra ¿ whose flagship site Madain Saleh, listed as Unesco world heritage since 2008, houses 138 rocky tombs, sanctuaries, wells, decorated frontages, etc. Then the Roman Empire annexed the Kingdom and marked AlUla Valley with Greek and Latin influence, before Muhammad¿s arrival in 630 A.D. during his campaign against the Byzantine army. Carrying the memory of their predecessors, in the 13th century Muslims reused the stones of the Dedanite and Lihyanite ruins to build what we call today the Old Town of AlUla. All these civilizations stamped the region with their unique culture, leaving exceptional archaeological sites for posterity.
"The portrait is a process of distillation of the essence of the being whose only purpose is to preserve the aura of the individual." Born in 1968 in Jiangsu, China, LiFang lives and works in Paris. Her figurative work, on the border of abstraction, deals with all the subjects of our daily universe: antonymous crowds in megalopolises, portraits of her entourage, scenes of idleness at the water¿s edge, current events (Chinese censorship, migrants)... Her singular technique proceeds in large strokes: the bodies appear as sculpted blocks, right in the colored material. LiFang works in the same way on facial features, bodies and clothes. This unity of treatment and this refusal to individualize the characters transform the subjects into beings who, having no other consistency than that of the paint, send us back the image of our shared solitudes. Behind their apparent banality, his paintings express universal feelings: loneliness in crowds, the joy of bodies at rest connected to nature... By revisiting the subjects of classical painting, LiFang invents new codes to propose a contemporary vision of the beauty of the world. Timeless, light and deep, joyful and dramatic, LiFang¿s work is an open work. It offers the viewer the freedom to realize his or her own imagination while feeling part of the community of the living. This first monograph invites the reader to explore all aspects of her work. LiFang is represented by several galleries, including Galerie Boulakia, Red Zone Arts, SpArts Paris. The Cernushi Museum acquired three of her works in 2013.
The book presents the work of French designer Jean-Michel Wilmotte through crafts. Celebrating the unique skills of glassblowers and glass artisans, Wilmotte¿s collection ¿Vessels¿ is a mix of nostalgia and modernity. Works, mainly inspired by his childhood's memories and objects in his father¿s pharmaceutical laboratory, are made in historical workshops of Murano (an island in the Venetian Lagoon known alla around the world for the glass creations of its artisans). Chandeliers, table lamps, vases and other objects presented in this book are made for public and private spaces and are displayed in hotels, theaters, train stations and offices in many countries. Glass is a material both simple to make and difficult to work with. It offers infinite creative possibilites for those who know how to master it. The collaboration between Wilmotte and Muranös craftsmen results in unique works playing with forms and supports. The designer¿s vision spreads through all the glass creations. Transparency and malleability of glass allow delicate art works with sharp lines and this material is perfect to emphasize symmetry and equilibrium ¿ which are key themes in Wilmotte¿s work. The photographs of this book, exclusively taken at Venice, suggest travelling through the city and its artisans¿ workshops. Alessandra Chemollös work confront Venice of postcards and Wilmotte¿s creations in pictures playing with light and reflections. Architecture and craftsmanship are mixed, in a quest for continuity and complementarity.
"The future of architecture is nature." Founded in 2009 by Manal Rachdi, OXO Architectes creates particularly innovative projects that are distinguished by a programmatic symbiosis bringing together within a single building several typologies such as offices, shops and housing. All projects designed by OXO Architectes integrate natural elements ¿ terraces, interior forests or green walls ¿ with the aim of creating architectural systems that can renew the experience of urbanity and the city. For OXO, the future of the city is nature. With experience working with some of the most renowned contemporary architects such as Duncan Lewis and Jean Nouvel, Manal Rachdi has worked on the projects for the Seoul Opera House, the Philharmonie de Paris and the mixed-use tower of the MoMa in New York. With his firm, Rachdi has created particularly bold projects that always show great attention to the surrounding urban context. Among his most notable projects are: ¿ ¿Le Cristal¿ housing complex in Nanterre. ¿ The Polytechnique building in Saclay in collaboration with Sou Fujimoto and NLA Paris. ¿ Mille Arbres - the winning project of the ¿Réinventer Paris¿ competition, also in collaboration with Sou Fujimoto. ¿ Balcon sur Paris ¿ the winning project of the ¿Inventons la Métropole¿ competition in collaboration with the agencies Kengo Kuma & Associates + XTU Architects + Stefano Boeri Architetti + Michael Green Architecture + Koz Architectes At nearly 43 years old and after 15 years at the head of his agency, Manal Rachdi has forged a solid international reputation and is one of the pillars of a new generation of architects
¿Monet is for me one of the greatest painters who ever existed. He went his way of exploring light relentlessly [...] the viscera of light became visible.¿ A major artist of the Viennese Actionist movement, of which he was one of the founders, Hermann Nitsch, born in Vienna in 1938, died in Mistelbach in April 2022. Internationally recognised as the master of Austrian performance art, the artist developed a powerfully expressive body of work, borrowing from religious dramaturgy to develop a total art that culminated every year since the 1950s in his ¿Orgien Mysterien Theater¿, where he invited friends and audiences to six days of uninterrupted festivities and performances. At the end of his career, Hermann Nitsch developed a painting of great vitality, increasingly colourful, always closely linked to his performative acts. Fascinated by Monet¿s Nympheas, the artist engaged in a dialogue with this masterpiece of Impressionism, whose proximity to his art he emphasised: ¿In my performances, my expressive and religious painting has become a finished drama, an analytical dramaturgy. What remains to be seen is a frenzy of colour and form that stands out far beyond its content, like the ecstasies of colour in Monet¿s Water Lilies¿. The book will bring together a collection of paintings and graphic works produced shortly before his death, chosen directly from the artist¿s studio.
First monograph of a major contemporary artist. This monograph on French artist Toma-L gathers a large selection of his works, which can be found all over the world. France, Belgium, Canada, Austria, the United States and the United Arab Emirates are just some of the countries where galleries exhibit his work. Toma-L is constantly seeking to reinvent and discover new media. He masters lithography, mixes techniques on canvas or wood, and creates frescoes. A polymorphous artist, he also works with other artists ¿ video artists, producers, dancers, choreographers, photographers, editors, graphic designers, etc. ¿ on a wide range of projects. His paintings show how instinctive is his gesture. Toma-L lets himself be carried away in a ¿free and instinctive expression¿, as he likes to say himself. The artist often meets with lyrical abstraction in his vibrant works. The constraint of bodies, movement or space give birth to hybrid works that belong to various artistic fields.
Leonardo da Vinci and Anatomy: all the power and relevance of this great Renaissance mind. This exhibition catalogue on Leonardo da Vinci the anatomist highlights the mystery of a thought that was both anchored in its time and, combined with a totally new practice (dissection), leading to a new understanding of the nature of life. Da Vinci was not content with a passive description of the human body; he sought to penetrate the secrets of its functioning by first studying the mechanics of humans (bones, muscles, tendons), then the logic of the senses, and finally all the bodily functions (digestion, respiration, blood circulation, reproduction), which made him to use qualitative reasoning. Contrary to popular belief, Leonardo did not carry out his dissections in secret, but in complete agreement with the political and religious authorities, until his materialistic ideas came into conflict with the pontifical authorities, particularly with regard to embryology. The originality of the book is to show how Leonardös work as an anatomist and his work as a painter are inseparable. The book thus links a work such as the Last Supper in Milan with the knowledge gathered in the medical field. The book brings together originals or copies of Leonardös sheets with objects (anatomical waxes, facsimiles of dissecting instruments), books studied by the artist, interviews with specialists and animated 3D reconstructions.
The catalogue raisonné of the artist's complete works, featuring his famous seascapes and other lesser-known works. Jacques Cordier (1937-1975) was a French painter with a versatile artistic technique: when he wasn¿t using oil paint, he painted in watercolor or drew in Indian ink. Despite his short life, Cordier produced a multitude of works, listed here in this catalogue raisonné with over 1,200 illustrations. The book also includes a selection of letters and testimonials written by personalities such as Françoise Sagan, Bernard Buffet and François Cheng. The catalogue covers his entire body of work, from his first works in 1953, when he was just 16, to the year of his death in 1975 ¿ which is more than 20 years of creation. Grandson of sculptor Charles Cordier, Jacques discovered his vocation as an artist at an early age. At just 19, he exhibited his first drawings alongside those of Bernard Buffet. Initially, his muse was none other than Paris, which he portrayed in all its grandeur. From 1962 onwards, due to his military service in the navy, the artist created luminous works imbued with reverie, depicting the magnificent landscapes of the Mediterranean. A colorist¿s temperament is revealed in contact with the light of the South and the color of the ocean. In the latter part of his life, the influence of William Turner is felt in his art. During his lifetime, Jacques Cordier exhibited in France, the United States and Italy.
The first monograph in English on a major Polish painter. Józef Halas (1927-2015) is one of the major Polish painters of his generation. Active in Wroclaw from 1949 until his death, first as a student and then as an artist and teacher, he left a unique body of work that, like many of those built largely during the Cold War, remained long unrecognized in Western Europe and North America. The Mountain series, which occupied most of his activity during the 1960s, marks both a strong connection with nature and a distance from the landscape painting tradition. The following series, Oppositions, Partitions, Verticals, Obliques, Levels and Interiors, constitute the pinnacle of his production and testify to a poetics of contradiction which is embodied in multiple and successful ways. The Pocket Gouaches, begun in the late 1970s, reveal an artist who has always remained open to experimentation. For a decade, the history of art has fortunately opened its field of investigation, modernity has become plural and its actors have become more numerous. There is no doubt that Józef Halas must now be counted as one of the important players in this global history. This monograph, with texts by Michel Gauthier, curator at the Centre Pompidou, Magdalena Howorus-Czajka, professor at the University of Gdansk, and Marjolaine Lévy, art critic, aims to contribute to the knowledge of Halas¿s work beyond Poland and by placing it in an international context.
After more than three decades devoted to intercultural mediation, Brahim Alaoui, former director of the museum of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, looks back on his encounters with Arab artists in their home countries or in exile. He brings knowledge and a sensitive look at the work of a generation of modern artists, who were often trained in post-war Europe and then went back to their country to reflect on their identity and develop a post-colonial modernity. Alaoui then presents a selection of contemporary artists who have emancipated themselves from the classical ways of representation at the turn of the 21st century, exploring new mediums and bringing an original contribution to the global dynamics of international artistic networks. Through fifty portraits, we come across the history of art and the debates of different ideas in the Arab world, since the beginning of the twentieth century until today. The book displays numerous portraits of artists in their homes or their studios. An important interview with the art critic Pascale Le Thorel allows us to contextualize Alaoui's encounters with the various artists. A publication that also contributes to the reflection on ¿modernity¿, rethought in its plurality, in the light of new values brought by cultural globalization.
Pascal Haudressy was a French visual artist of Tartar origin. After ten years at UNESCO as a cultural project manager, Haudressy decided to devote himself to artistic production in 2005. He develops his aesthetic style by combining different media: videos, sculptures, and paintings to reconcile the past and the future, materiality and immateriality or even science and myth. After a first monograph published by Skira in 2011, this book offers a rediscovery of Pascal Haudressy¿s artistic practice, especially through an essay by Françoise Paviot on the piece Heart. This major work was exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in 2019 and at the Sainte Eustache church for three years (2017-2020). According to the artist, "[...] it is truly a sculpture, animated by a random process," based on the sabotage of the machine and creating a work between figuration and abstraction. The artist has participated in several solo and group exhibitions in France and internationally, including a notable participation in the exhibition Artists & Robots at the Grand Palais in 2018 with the piece Brain. An essay by Jérôme Neutres, curator and independent art producer, will provide insight into this piece. His artworks have joined the collections of FRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais and agnès b.
Born in Senegal in 1977, Omar Ba lives and works between Dakar and New York. His paintings - made with various techniques and materials - include political and social themes with multiple interpretations. His plastic vocabulary reactivates historical and a temporal questions while elaborating an artistic statement of absolute contemporaneity. Omar Ba was trained at the Beaux Arts in Dakar and Geneva. In recent years, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Voyage au-delà de l'illusion at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (2022) and Global(e) Résistance at the Centre Pompidou (2020). His works have entered several public collections, including those of the Centre Pompidou and the Centre National des Arts Plastiques (CNAP) in France, the Swiss National Collection (Basel) and the Louvre Abu Dhabi. This book is an opportunity to explore Omar Ba's paintings, some of which will be displayed for the opening exhibition of Galerie Templon in New York.
Coinciding with the new display of Basbous Museum's permanent collections, this book presents a selection of the works exhibited there. These works, kept in the personal collection of Alfred Basbous (1924-2006) until his death, are infused with a unique personal dimension, enhanced by the fact that they are displayed in his former house and studio. The garden, which was envisioned and implemented by the artist himself, hosts several milestone sculptures. When Alfred Basbous studied Sculpture in Paris, he discovered and admired the sculptures of Auguste Rodin. The interest and respect between Rodin and Basbous seem to have been mutual as the collections of the Rodin Museum include works created by Alfred Basbous. After his studies in Paris, Basbous went back to Lebanon and found in Rachana the perfect setting to create his remarkable sculptures. He experimented with a wide range of materials - bronze, stone, metal, wood and marble - and, while he never gave up on figurative art, the artist deepened his interest in abstraction. He thus created innovating sculptures that reveal his constant search to develop his art both on formal and technical levels.
For the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale, the Lebanese Pavilion exhibits two Lebanese contemporary artists, Danielle Arbid and Ayman Baalbaki, in the exhibition The World in the Image of Man. The dialogue between these two artists is characterized by different geographical and aesthetic points of view: the video Allô Chérie by Danielle Arbid, a filmmaker and video artist who emigrated to Paris, interacts with Janus Gate by Ayman Baalbaki, a painter who lives and works in Beirut. Within his monumental installation, Ayman Baalbaki creates a work embodying the process of fragmentation suffered by the city of Beirut due to the return of barriers and barricades in its streets. The movement of the door of Janus, which is alternately wide open, shuttered or closed, responds to the mother of the artist's frantic race car through Beirut. The video is organized in a split screen, enhancing the impression of a divided city. The soundtrack is composed of snatches of negotiations on the phone accounting for a fractured city in the midst of uncertainty. The catalogue gathers several articles facilitating the apprehension of these two artists and marks the return of the Lebanese Pavilion to the Venice Biennale after 5 years of absence.
Originally from Chengdu in China, Kiki Xue first studied mathematics before deciding to become a professional photographer. Since 2010, he has specialized in fashion photography and has naturally settled in Paris. By collaborating with the biggest fashion magazines, he has created an indefinable and yet unique style where each photograph reveals the photographer's work on precise composition, staging and attention to detail. Far from considering fashion photography as a minor practice, the artist draws inspiration and stimulation from it to create fabulous art photographs. His series focus on the nude, portraits and traditional costume, with a growing interest in flowers. Xue observes the effect of natural light and works with it to illuminate his works. Working with both digital and film cameras, Kiki Xue explores many different realms; the human body, still life, portraiture and fashion; creating profound detailed images, full of textures, emotion and vibrant colours. This book offers an opportunity to explore the practice of this artist whose knowledge of art and its history infuses his work.
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