Ten monumental steel sculptures. All variations on Venet's favorite themes, Arcs, Angles, Diagonals and Indeterminate Lines, will be represented at The Fields, reaching heights ranging from 14 to 55 feet.
Art Omi International Arts Center is pleased to
announce that ten monumental steel sculptures by Bernar Venet will be
featured at The Fields Sculpture Park from June 2 - October 31, 2002. The
sculptures - characterized by the artist as "lines in space" - were
produced by Venet in the Vosges Mountains in northwestern France annd then
shipped to the United States, specifically for this exhibition.
Bernar Venet was born in the Alpes de Haute-Provence in 1941. As a
promising young artist in Nice, he covered canvases with tar and used
charcoal as a raw material, motivated by a need to redefine art's
traditional boundaries. A well-articulated intellectual bent and readiness
to experiment propelled him to the forefront of what came to be called
"Conceptual Art." After moving to New York in 1966, Venet developed a body
of work, steeped in non-art propositions he borrowed from mathematicians
and theoretical scientists, that was the subject of a five-year
retrospective at the New York Cultural Center in 1971.
After a six-year retreat from making art in favor of furthering public
understanding of the radical direction which he had taken, Venet returned
to the studio. The line, in all its mathematical variations and physical
shapes, came to dominate his production for the next ten years. Then, in
1983, Venet hit his stride with the much more personal "indeterminate
line," a departure from the mathematical model, now convoluted and
recognizable as a linear improvisation only. Translated into Cor-Ten
steel, Venet's "lines" have gained visibility, over the last twenty years,
in public parks and squares, on the international exhibition circuit, and
in the gardens of museums and private collectors.
As an ensemble, the ten sculptures planned for The Fields surpass, in
number and volume, a similar group of the artist's work which traveled
from Paris's historic Champ-de-Mars to public and private sites in Hong
Kong, Shanghai, Brussels, Cologne, Basel, Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro, 1996-2000. All variations on Venet's favorite themes, Arcs,
Angles, Diagonals and Indeterminate Lines, will be represented at The
Fields, reaching heights ranging from 14 to 55 feet.
While sculpture has been a major form of expression, Venet has made
pioneering contributions in other media as well, including his early
Conceptual works and his recent wall drawing and monosemic paintings. This
spring, the Musee National d 'Art Moderne at the Georges Pompidou in Paris
will honor those other aspects of the artist's work in an evening
performance devoted to poetry, music and film.
This is The Fields Sculpture Park at Art Omi's first one-person show. The
exhibition is intended to be part of an ongoing series of major one-person
shows by international artists. The Fields is able to offer these artists
large-scale outdoor exhibition areas within an established exhibition
forum.
More info: Rachel Weingeist at Plum Projects t.212.505.6198
Sunday Brunch Reception June 2nd, 11am - 3pm.
All are welcome to come meet the artist, walk the grounds and join us for
brunch under a tent in the park. Admission is free and open to the public
daily from dawn until dusk. Art Omi is located 2 1/2 hours north of NYC.
The Fields Sculpture Park
59 Letter S Road Ghent, NY 12075