- 1146
BERNAR VENET | THE STEEL BAR AND THE PICTORIAL MEMORY OF THE GESTURE
Estimate
500,000 - 1,000,000 HKD
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Description
- Bernar Venet
- THE STEEL BAR AND THE PICTORIAL MEMORY OF THE GESTURE
- signed with the artist’s handprint
- acrylic on canvas with steel bar
- 250 by 250 cm; 98⅜ by 98⅜ in.
- To be executed in a live performance by the artist on 29 March 2019.
Provenance
Courtesy of the artist and de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist.
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by the artist.
Catalogue Note
“My work is self-generated. Nothing around me serves as a particular inspiration […] I work, and I make discoveries while remaining open-minded to anything that might present a new possibility in the context of my work; this framework looks to enlarge its scope as a result of new formal and conceptual discoveries.”
Bernar Venet
In Venet’s body of work, the straight line is the support for a wide range of experiments. Its high degree of neutrality allows him to employ it in performances and other original ways of making art without fear of its conveying foreign meanings. He has used it as a way to paint, for instance. The straight steel bar is attached to the ceiling by one or more ropes, then smeared with paint and applied either to a sheet of paper or directly to the wall. According to how the metal bar is hung from the ceiling, the amplitude of the artist’s gestures changes while the traces vary more or less on the support. Venet executed a work in this series on 31 May 2004 at Mamac in Nice. That day, the steel bar was held by just one rope and the impression was made directly on the wall. The artist has exhibited the traces of this piece, which is midway between painting, sculpture and performance. The series conjures up the entire arrangement used in producing the work the way the trace evokes the object that created it. It is built on a network of echoes that makes the painting an overall work of art in which the straight line is both means for making the art and the subject.
Deborah Laks
Sotheby's and de Sarthe Gallery are delighted to host a special live performance The Steel Bar and the Pictorial Memory of the Gesture by Bernar Venet during the auction preview on 29 March 2019. During the performance, a new artwork will be created that will be offered in the Contemporary Art Evening Auction to benefit amfAR - The Foundation for AIDS Research.
Bernar Venet
In Venet’s body of work, the straight line is the support for a wide range of experiments. Its high degree of neutrality allows him to employ it in performances and other original ways of making art without fear of its conveying foreign meanings. He has used it as a way to paint, for instance. The straight steel bar is attached to the ceiling by one or more ropes, then smeared with paint and applied either to a sheet of paper or directly to the wall. According to how the metal bar is hung from the ceiling, the amplitude of the artist’s gestures changes while the traces vary more or less on the support. Venet executed a work in this series on 31 May 2004 at Mamac in Nice. That day, the steel bar was held by just one rope and the impression was made directly on the wall. The artist has exhibited the traces of this piece, which is midway between painting, sculpture and performance. The series conjures up the entire arrangement used in producing the work the way the trace evokes the object that created it. It is built on a network of echoes that makes the painting an overall work of art in which the straight line is both means for making the art and the subject.
Deborah Laks
Sotheby's and de Sarthe Gallery are delighted to host a special live performance The Steel Bar and the Pictorial Memory of the Gesture by Bernar Venet during the auction preview on 29 March 2019. During the performance, a new artwork will be created that will be offered in the Contemporary Art Evening Auction to benefit amfAR - The Foundation for AIDS Research.