Salon du dessin contemporain
dal 8/4/2008 al 13/4/2008
Segnalato da
8/4/2008
Salon du dessin contemporain
Saint-Augustin, Paris
Fifty-five galleries of first-rate importance, both French and from abroad present works dating from 1948 to today. Contemporary drawing lays claim to the possibility of all different available supports and procedures possible: the fold in a sheet of paper making the line of a shadow; the wash of a gouache as watery as an ink; the trace by computer on films or videos; the embroidered letters of the alphabet; the page of a cartoon with or without its bubbles and lines: urban graffiti and the cut-out of logotypes as recourse for industrial sticking tape.
The first edition of the contemporary drawing fair in Paris, in 2007, marked the great confusion in
clearly defining what constitutes drawing today. That may again be the case for this second edition
that will we hope be as prospective and as generous as possible. Should we, as some believe, limit its
definition to traces of lines on paper, to the use of more or less oily crayons, or again admit drawing
only as a preparatory form of a work to come?
One can well imagine that in limiting the expression of contemporary art to such definitions would be
to deprive ourselves of many of the possibilities and actions of today's art. Even if its uses and techniques
remain a memory and constitute what can be considered a trade, it is interesting to remember that at
the end of the Middle Ages, the scarcity first of rare and precious parchment, then sheets of paper that
were just as sought-after, meant that drawing usually consisted in engraving on planks of wood that
were waxed or covered with bone-dust and upon which one practiced rather than composed. In this
sense, drawing has always managed to avoid the question of both the support and its materiality, and
has even made a style of doing so.
The 20th century saw the appearance of the double temptation of sketching lines fed by Ingres or
Cézanne, or searching for a form, more fragile, be it automatic, scriptural, technical or instinctive, apt
to translate the disorders of the psyche and the motifs of modern life. A play on constraints and observation,
at the borderline between the conception and proposition, contemporary drawing, if it is heir to the past
century, also seems to try and incarnate a certain suspicion of the closed form, displaying a great freedom
and pleasure in spontaneity.
Contemporary drawing lays claim to the possibility of all different available supports and procedures
possible: the fold in a sheet of paper making the line of a shadow; the wash of a gouache as watery as
an ink; the trace by computer on films or videos; the embroidered letters of the alphabet; the page of a
cartoon with or without its bubbles and lines: urban graffiti and the cut-out of logotypes as recourse for
industrial sticking tape.
Contemporary drawing is wary of masterpieces but aspires to them; it searches for self-confidence in the
face of the clamor of an omnipresent art market; it lays claim to the right to trial and error in face of
certainties, and installs, without frontiers, shapes or forms of witnessing, of migration, of the random and
of thought-processes. A highly modern language, drawing, even if it sometimes proceeds by fashions or
codes, remains above all at the instant of all possibles that one should not try to constrain by needless
definition.
Laurent Boudier
On the same principle as last year, the second edition of the Contemporary Drawing Fair will take place
in a building in the heart of central Paris.
Fifty-five galleries of first-rate importance, both French and from abroad (Germany, Belgium, Canada,
United States, Holland and Switzerland) will invest a Parisian building of four levels, over 2000m2, for an
international Fair entirely dedicated to modern and contemporary drawing, with works dating from 1948 to
today.
A medium apart, even if it covers the freer forms of classical drawing, modern contemporary drawing,
in its spontaneity, and sometimes its dimensions, is strongly inscribed in today's epoch. Particularly
convivial by its organization "in apartments" and by the number of its participants, the Contemporary
Drawing Fair favours the presentation of works rarely on offer to collectors in traditional fairs until now.
At the same time several institutions, museums or art foundations such as the Centre Pompidou, the Musée
d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles, the
Halle Saint-Pierre or the Fondation Rustin ... propose exhibitions of works on paper throughout April. Created
at the initiative of the Contemporary Drawing Fair, the label “Paris Capitale du dessin” will bring together
all these exhibitions under one banner.
A new space, a new lay-out : particular attention will thus be given this year to the fluidity of circulation from
one floor to another. In addition, each gallery will present the work of an artist in a one-man show over
at least a third of the stand, while several artists will intervene directly on the walls of the building.
Finally, presented on the side-lines of the galleries showing, drawings from the Claudine and Jean-Marc
Salomon collection will be honored in this second edition.
The Contemporary Drawing Fair is organized by Mazarine-29 :
Christine Phal, President; Laurent Boudier, Artistic Director; Jean-Yves Mesguich, General delegate;
Bernard Point, Secretary.
Drawings from the Claudine and Jean-Marc Salomon Collection,
Special guests of the second edition
of the Contemporary Drawing Fair
The Claudine and Jean-Marc Salomon collection
An amateur of art from adolescence when he frequented the backstages of the Annecy animated film Festival,
Jean-Marc Salomon has, over the last ten years, put together a collection of contemporary art that is both open
and eclectic. A curious and sensitive collector, Jean-Marc Salomon is unwilling to let himself be closed into
one line or current of thought. His choices take into account the great diversity of expression of contemporary
creativity, bringing together, according to his personal choices, monumental installations, photographs, paintings,
videos and works on paper, and freely associating the works of artists of international repute with promising
young artists.
Drawings from the Claudine and Jean-Marc Salomon collection
Jean-Marc Salomon, an architect by training, entertains an intimate relationship with drawing, a
medium that he has himself exercised, even if this discipline doesn't occupy a particularly privileged
place in the collection as a whole. What he appreciates in drawing is the direct rapport with the artist's
hand; the feeling of being witness to the working-out and crystallization of a thought-process.
Drawing, both by its format that is well-adapted to private
spaces, and by its more accessible prices, offers great
freedom to the collector. Thus the collection incorporates
works of a very different nature and spirit: preparatory
drawings for installations, such as carcasses by Anne
Ferrer, or other monumental drawings in charcoal,
dialogue with paintings by Roberto Longo, the astonishing
collages of German artist Oliver Ross or then again the
erotic drawings of Madeleine Berkherner.
List (indicative) of artists presented
Madeleine Berkhemer, Alighiero Boetti, Philippe Cognée, Anne-Lise Coste, Gérard Desgranchamps,
Catharina van Eetvelde, Anne Ferrer, Antony Gormley, Iris Levasseur, Robert Longo, Fabrice Midal,
Damien Navarro, Françoise Pétrovitch, Pascal Pinaud, Léopold Rabus, Florence Reymond, Oliver Ross,
Serse, Spencer Sweeney…
The Claudine and Jean-Marc Salomon Foundation for Contemporary Art
In a spirit of sharing and the discovery of contemporary art by the public at large, Jean-Marc Salomon
and his wife Claudine have created a foundation in the Annecy region, which was inaugurated in June
2001. In the exceptional setting of a 16th century chateau, surrounded by a sculpture park, the foundation,
open from March to November, presents temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, and solo and
group exhibitions, that are distinct from the collection. The foundation has already received more than
54 000 visitors.
Fondation pour l’art contemporain Claudine et Jean-Marc Salomon
Château d’Arenthon • 74290 Alex • Tél. +33 (0)4 50 02 87 52
http://www.fondation-salomon.com
Paris Capital of Drawing
Contemporary drawing, tomorrow's heritage
The excellence of public and private collections of works on paper should be
an invitation to better observe the medium in its contemporary aspect.
In view of this, the Contemporary Drawing Fair has this year taken the initiative
of creating the new labe “Paris Capitale du dessin” favoring a friendly partnership
with major Parisian museums and private foundations.
It was thus a question, beyond the short duration of the Fair, of inscribing a suite
of asides and discoveries on the theme of contemporary drawing in the seasonal
rhythm of Parisian exhibitions, and of giving a large public access to works that
are often intimate, are revelatory of a veritable work of shaping by artists and
creators, either of a genesis, or of a well-founded and autonomous practice.
“Paris Capitale du dessin”, brings together under a common label the exhibitions organized by the Galerie
des arts Graphiques at the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Halle Saint
Pierre, the Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, the Fondation Rustin, The Centre Wallonie Bruxelles ... From any
of these incursions, each will find, we hope, tender impulses, fantasia and fantasies, variations on or of the lines
of an animated work, graphic games or intimate diaries, in which the body, the face, the tension of time, are
constantly present in works both figurative or abstract. They are unique works which admit both the weight
of a pictorial language and the joy of invention: contemporary drawing represents both signs of the everyday
and the inheritance of tomorrow.
The label “Paris Capitale du dessin” will be applied from 2009 to exhibitions of works on paper taking place
in various galleries in partnership with the Fair.
Press Relations
Alambret Communication Anne-Sophie Giraud
13 rue Sainte-Cécile 75009 Paris
Olivier Gaulon + 33 (0)6 18 40 58 61
ogaulon@alambretcommunication.com
Private opening:
Wednesday 9th April from 7 pm to 11 pm
Professional opening:
Wednesday 9th April from 3 pm to 7 pm
Saint-Augustin
4 rue du General Foy - Paris
Open to the public
Thursday 10th April: 12 pm to 9 pm
Friday 11th April:12 pm to 10 pm
Saturday 12th April: 12 pm to 9 pm
Sunday 13th April: 12 pm to 9 pm
Monday 14th April: 12 pm to 7 pm
Entrance: 10 euros (reductions : 5 euros)