Clair - Obscure Exhibition - Pinault Collection Museum - Paris

Drawing on the ideas of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, the exhibition "Clair-obscur" transforms the spaces of the Bourse de Commerce into a landscape that is both luminous and crepuscular, in which some one hundred works from the Pinault Collection are revealed in an interplay of light and shadow. Using this Italian philosopher’s thoughts as a starting point, the exhibition takes its title from the famous technique of chiaroscuro that first emerged in Mannerist and Baroque paintings in the sixteenth century, most notably in the works of Caravaggio, who intensified its use, plunging the earthly worldinto a deep darkness penetrated by rays of light that heighten the sense of dramatic tension and the spiritual questions underlying his paintings. In continuation of this journey into the heart of darkness, Goya expressed all the darkness of humanity in his work, and the chiaroscuro he perfected continues to impact contemporary works with its sense of depth and mystery, such as Sigmar Polke’s hallucination of a chapel, Axial Age (2005-2007). Philippe Parreno, who reinterprets the black paintings of the Quinta del Sordo by candlelight, reminds us how much this alchemical cycle opened the floodgates of our modern sensibility. Chiaroscuro thus emerges as a renewed visual and symbolic language, a narrative device, and a philosophical principle. It expresses the materiality of light and the shadow areas of our subconscious, thus transforming our sense of the visible and the invisible. The influence of this pictorial sensibility is also palpable in the muted palette of Victor Man’s enigmatic, melancholy canvases—a series of which is featured in Gallery 3—and the highly poetic works of Bill Viola, which, inspired by the old masters, depict figures emerging from the shadows in slow motion.  Go to Website

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