François Morellet

François Morellet is an contemporary artist French, painter, engraver and Sculpteur, born in 1926 with Cholet (Maine-et-Loire). He is regarded as one of the major actors of the geometric abstraction of second half of the 20th century and a precursor of the Minimalisme.

Biography

As of the end of the Years 1940, the painting of François Morellet endeavors to evacuate individual subjectivity while obeying collective concerns. After one figurative short period (1947 - 1950), it amplifies this evolution towards a delivered art of any romanticism while choosing the abstraction in 1950, under the influence of Pierre Dmitrienko (1925 - 1974): it then adopts a very stripped geometrical language, marked by the example of Mondrian, composed of simple forms (lines, squares, triangles), in a limited number of colors, assembled in elementary compositions on two dimensions. This research is marked by the work of max Bill and the concrete Art, discovered at the time of a voyage to the Brésil in 1951, and by the geometrical reasons for the Alhambra of Grenade, admired in 1952.

Until 1960, Morellet establishes the various systems of arrangement of the forms which it employs (superposition, fragmentation, juxtaposition, interferences…), by in particular creating its first “screen”, a network of black parallel lines superimposed according to a given order.

Of 1961 with 1968, it is one of the creators and protagonists of the Kinetic art within the Groupe of Search for Visual Art (GRAV) with five other artists: Francisco Sobrino, Horacio Garcia Rossi, Julio the Park, Yvaral and Joel Stein, like François and Vera Molnar.

It also takes part in the international movement of the Nouvelle Tendency. He seeks in this context to create an experimental art which is based on the scientific knowledge of the visual perception and which is collectively elaborate.

In 1963, Morellet starts to create works with neon tubes, like the American artist daN Flavin.

After 1970, begins for him a third period marked by creation from increasingly stripped works, which play with their support and the space which surrounds them. It then carries out a great number of architectural integrations, since its first monumental intervention on the plate of Reynie (Paris, Beaubourg) in 1971.

Work

For Morellet, the work of art returns only to itself. Its title, generally sophisticated (the artist likes the word games), indicates the rules of the game which governed its development. He intends to control the creative process and to demystify the romantic mythology of art and the artist, by justifying each one of his choices by a principle established as a preliminary, which can go besides as far as utilizing the chance in certain components of work.

The rigorous application of the concepts of geometry, brings with the passing of years a space approach which locates it from the start at before guard of concrete Art or Minimal art. Three American artists, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella and Sol LeWitt continued research similar to François Morellet. That leads to a creation from where the feeling is absent: “A true experiment must be carried out starting from controllable elements while progressing systematically according to a program. The development of an experiment must be carried out itself, apart from the programmer. ” This research of active neutrality conditions the matter of François Morellet and the registered voter in an unquestionable contemporaneity which can be defined by experiments like the random Répartitions and the Trames since the Années 1950, the architectural Désintégrations since 1971, the Géométrées since 1983, the Défigurations since 1988, the Déclinaisons of pi since 1998.

Artist with strong international reputation using of multiple supports like materials (fabrics, tables, adhesives, neons, surfaces of buildings, etc), it enjoys a great consideration in France and Germany appearing by a big number of public orders and private like in many European countries like Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands or in the USA. Its intervention on the place through an in situ practice makes him explore the fields of the installation and the environment. From June 20th to September 16th, 2007, he proposes with the Museum Modern art of the Town of Paris a project of exposure " Blow-up 1952-2007" , putting the question of the enlarging and the resumption of former works.

Principal works

the random Distributions since the Years 1950

Distribution of 16 identical forms , grid with double screen paints after its visit in Alhambra de Grenade
6 random distributions of 4 black and white squares according to the even and odd figures of number pi , oil-base paint on wood, 80 cm X 80 cm, 1958, Paris, National museum of modern art (Card on the insecula basis)

the Trames since the Années 1950

3 X 3 , oil-base paint on wood, 1,34 m X 1,34 m, 1954, Paris, National museum of modern art (Card on the insecula basis)
Of the yellow to purple the , oil-base paint on wood, 2,15 m X 1,10 m, 1956, Paris, National museum of modern art (Card on the insecula basis)

the architectural Disintegrations since 1971
the Géométrées since 1983
the Disfigurations since 1988
the Variations of pi since 1998

References

External bonds

François Morellet on the audio-visual Encyclopedia of the contemporary art
Gallery Art Attitude Herve Bize

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