Regards croises. For this exhibition, drawing is our point of departure, with the sculptures appearing only in counterpoint. The exhibition comprises close to 100 of Penone's drawings dating from 1967 to 2006; 13 works by other artists.
The Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, is presenting French-spea-king Switzerland’s first exhibition by Giuseppe Penone (b. Garessio, Italy, 1947,
lives and works in Turin). The exhibition has been prepared in close collaboration
with the artist.
«The skin of the universe is mirrored on the tip of the pencil,
the surface of the sculpture on the skin of the hands»
Giuseppe Penone, 2002.
Every great sculptor is also a great draugh
tsman – and Giuseppe Penone is living
proof of this. Here the first museum exhibition by this major Arte Povera figure in French-
speaking Switzerland reverses the usual practice of spotlighting Penone’s sculptures,
with his preliminary drawings serving as backup.
For this exhibition drawing is our point of departure, with the sculptures appearing
only in counterpoint: drawings by Penone himself, of course, but also works on paper
from his personal collection, by names like Alberto Giacometti, Amadeo Modigliani,
Giacomo Balla, Pierre Bonnard, Kazimir Malevich and Louis Soutter. An exchange of
points of view, then, regarding different media, different creative time frames and different
forms of expression. Formal likeness is a minor concern here: what these interchanges
between the graphic worlds of Penone and his illustrious peers reveal are subtle elective
affinities and a lesser-known, more intimate side of the Italian artist.
The exhibition comprises close to a hundred of Penone’s drawings dating from
1967 to 2006, thirteen drawings by other artists, two big
Verde del bosco
frottages from
1984, a selection of the famous
Gesto vegetale
bronzes entwined around plants, the big
Spazio di luce
(2008), recently shown at Versailles, and a handsome figurative sculpture
from 1983 which has never been exhibited before.
The museum’s two biggest rooms are given over to the sculptures, with the other
spaces – or «cabinets» – housing the drawings;
the result is an alternation between the
infinitely small and the infinitely large, between the idea of conceptual development and
the finished work. Visual interplay, then, between drawing and sculpture, drawings by
Penone and other artists, and diametrically opposite notions of drawing
: as a medium
for
ideas and preliminary note-taking, but also as a specific, freestanding form of expression
in the dual sense of the terms
dessein
in French and
disegno
in Italian.
Giuseppe Penone. Regard croisés
Catalogue in French, edited by Bernard Fibicher, with essays by Giuseppe Penone,
Didier Semin, Bernard Fibicher and Ruggero Penone.
Press contact
Loïse Cuendet Tel +41 213163448 Fax +41 213163446 e-mail loise.cuendet@vd.ch
Opening reception Thursday 24 September 2015 at 6.30 pm
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
Palais de Rumine, place de la Riponne 6 CH-1014 Lausanne
Hours
Tue.- Fri. : 11 am – 6 pm
Sat.- Sun. : 11 am – 5 pm
Mon. : closed
Admissions
Adults: CHF 10.–
Pensioners, students, apprentices: CHF 8.–
Under 16: free
1st Saturday of the month: free