Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
PRESS RELEASE
Giulia Andreani
Amélie Bertrand
Marion Charlet
Nina Childress
Hélène Delprat
Vidya Gastaldon
Maude Maris
Iris Levasseur
Laure Prouvost
Delphine Trouche
Farah Atassi
Anne Brégeaut
Coraline de Chiara
Béatrice Cussol
Vanessa Fanuele
Oda Jaune
Elodie Lesourd
Eva Nielsen
Claire Tabouret
Paint, She Said
Exhibition 9th October – 15th
December 2015
Private view; 9th October at 6 pm
Between 9th October and 15th December 2015, Rochechouart Museum of
Contemporary Art presents “Paint, She Said”, an exhibition of paintings by
nineteen women artists celebrating the current buoyant state of painting and
particularly of painting by women artists living in France. Grouped under this title
(reminiscent of Marguerite Duras' film and book "Destroy She Said") are a
selection of established or up-and-coming artists who have clearly placed
themselves in a painterly tradition and contribute to its continuing renewal.
Paint, She Said (Curators: Julie Crenn & Annabelle Ténèze)
"The women are saying they know what being together means. They say that those who
defend a novel language must first learn to be violent. That if women want to transform the
world they must first arm themselves. They say they are starting out from scratch. That this
is the dawn of a new world." Monique Wittig – Les Guerrillères (1969)
"Cézanne: She Was a Great Painter." Carolee Schneemann (1975)
During the mid-sixties in New York, a young artist began reproducing the paintings and
sculptures of peers such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella,
Roy Lichtenstein and James Rosenquist. The artist was Elaine Sturtevant, known simply as
"Sturtevant" and she was transforming processes of reproduction and sampling into a
creative stance in its own right. Their resemblance to the originals is often uncanny. Here we
have a female artist repeating works by the cream of American contemporary artists all of
whom happen to be male. Are male and female versions of the same work different in some
way ? Is there a specifically feminine style? Such questions had been subject to hot debate
Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
ever since historians had begun rediscovering past women artists whilst increasing numbers
of living women artists were reclaiming visibility in contemporary art. Gradually a feminine
history of painting finally established the rightful reputations of such artists as Artemisia
Gentileschi, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Frida Kahlo and Lee Krasner, a list that has never
ceased to lengthen over the intervening decades as new practices broadened its scope
(adding for example Helene Schjerfbeck, Hilma af Klint etc.). It has often been underlined
how avant-garde women artists deliberately adopted traditional "feminine" practices such as
weaving and embroidery or less clearly connoted modern techniques that included video and
performance. However, many also turned to painting, wilfully staking rights to this classical
Fine Arts medium previously overwhelmingly dominated by males. This conquest of painting
was even evoked by women in other fields. Carolee Schneemann for example, a pioneer of
performance art and expanded cinema, explicitly declared "I am a painter extending the
visual principles of painting in time and space."
Paintings in this exhibition juxtapose approaches adopted by nineteen women artists
today. Interestingly, femininity is not a central issue in many of the works. Is the question
now old-fashioned or outdated? That could be a good sign, even if prejudices die hard and
can be subverted with irony or punk-like attitudes (e.g. Giulia Andreani, Anne Brégeaut,
Nina Childress, Béatrice Cussol, Oda Jaune). So why mount an exhibition of works
exclusively by women artists? The reason is simple: despite improvements since the
nineteen sixties, and a favourable evolution in France over the last few decades, many
women artists continue to be underrated. Consequently, the exhibition could be seen as
pursuing a feminist agenda. Our aim is to underline the work of selected women artists,
illustrating their contribution to the field of painting in a range of styles and reflecting
current trends in France. Included are French artists working abroad as well as foreign
artists living and working in France. Most paintings showcased here are figurative in style
without excluding abstract works. Some of the paintings demonstrate how recent
technological advances in imagery have been assimilated (e.g. Amélie Bertrand, Marion
Charlet, Elodie Lesourd). The exhibition demonstrates painting's synergy with other
expressive media, for example in Hélène Delprat's and Anne Bregeaut's use of sculpture,
drawings by Iris Levasseur and Béatrice Cussol or in installations by Laure Prouvost and
Delphine Trouche.
All these artists employ the traditional medium of painting, a field that has long been
subject to cycles of fashion, especially in recent decades. “Paint, She Said”, with its
intimations of Marguerite Duras' work, is a joyful celebration of well-established and younger
women artists who are tackling an historically loaded field and are updating it with new
modes of communication and expression.
Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
Pictures available:
Vydia Gastaldon, Tea Pot, Salad and Poltergeist, 2012, oil paint on canvas, 60 x 70 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Art Concept Gallery (Paris)
Giulia Andreani, Damnatio Memoriae II (KKG), 2013, acrylic on canvas, 100x80 cm
Courtesy of the artist and the Maia Muller Gallery (Paris)
Laure Prouvost, IDEALLY THIS WALL WOULD NOT BE HERE, 2014, varnished oil
paint on panel, 30x40x2 cm, Courtesy of the artist and MOT International
(Londres, Brusels) and Nathalie Obadia Gallery (Paris, Brussels)
Amélie Bertrand, Sidewalk Surfboard, 2010, oil paint on canvas, 180x190 cm
Private collection, courtesy of Semiose Gallery (Paris)
Eva Nielsen, Lucite III, 2015, Indian ink, acrylic and monotype on canvas, 190 x 140 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
Coraline de Chiara, Réserve, 2015, oil paint on canvas, 250 x 195 cm
Courtesy of the artist
Delphine Trouche, painAT2B, 2015, acrylic, laquered gum and magnet on paper
Courtesy of the artist
Oda Jaune, Wrestlers, 2013, oil paint on canvas, 190 x 280 cm
Courtesy of the artist and the Daniel Templon Gallery (Paris).
Béatrice Cussol, TN°547, 2013, inks and watercolours on paper, 150x150 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Porte-avion Galeery (Marseille)
photo: Claire Dorn
Nina Childress, Sissi couronnée, (Crowning Sissi), 2007, oil paint on canvas, 195 x 130 cm
Courtesy of the Bernard Jordan Gallery - Paris/Berlin/Zürich
Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
Hélène Delprat, Inca Song, 2013, pigment, acrylic binder, paper, chest (box), 210 x 260 cm
Courtesy of the artist and the Christophe Gaillard Gallery (Paris)
Marion Charlet, Escape, 2014, acrylic on canvas, 200 x 150 cm, private collection
Courtesy fo the artiste and the Virginie Louvet Gallery (Paris)
Anne Brégeaut, Un morceau de toi, (A Piece of You), 2013, vinyl paint on wood, hair, 72 x 36,5 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Semiose Gallery (Paris)
Vanessa Fanuele, Echoes, 2015, oil paint on canvas, 155 x120 cm
Courtesy of the artist and the Polaris Gallery (Paris)
Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
Claire Tabouret, Les Filles de la forêt, (Daughters of the Forest), 2013, 150 x 240 cm, acrylic on canvas.
Frac Auvergne Collection. Courtesy of the artist and the Bugada & Cargnel Gallery (Paris).
Elodie Lesourd, White Heat, 2008 (courtesy Terence Koh), acrylic on MDF board, 167,4 x 117,8 cm
Courtesy of the artist and the Olivier Robert Gallery (Paris)
Farah Atassi, Tabou II (Taboo II), 2013, oil and solvent-based oil paint on canvas, 200 x 160 cm
Frac Aquitaine Collection. Courtesy of the artist and Xippas Gallery (Paris, Geneva, Montevideo,
Punta del Este)
Maude Maris, Convexe et concave, 2011, 97x125 cm, oil paint on canvas, private
collection. Courtesy of the artist and the Isabelle Gounod Gallery (Paris)
Iris Levasseur, bbp-marbre, (Bbp-Marble), 2015, watercolour on paper, 114,5 x 224 cm
Courtesy of the artist and the Odile Ouizeman Gallery (Paris)
Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
Also on at the Museum:
LAURE
PROUVOST
We Will Go Far
26th June - 26th October
2015
From 26th June to 26th October Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art is delighted to
present “We Will Go Far” (On ira loin) the first solo exhibition by Laure Prouvost in a French
Museum. Winner of the prestigious Turner Prize in 2013, her artistic output constantly returns
to themes of escape into unfamiliar worlds or imaginings of unexpected alternative
environments. The selection of works on show at Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
underscores these elements that have characterised her work since the mysterious
disappearance of her artist grandfather (the central figure of Wantee, 2013). Laure Prouvost's
most emblematic works can be seen here, as Wantee and the Visitor Center (2014), a sort of
museum where visitors find themselves unintentionally paying their respects to the memory of
her fictive grandfather, plus a new commission especially made for Rochechouart Castle, The
Smoking Image, inspired by her current interest in adolescence and travel.
Laure Prouvost (b. 1978, based in London and Antwerp) structures her work as
independent story strands that weave and intersect from piece to piece, creating an amalgam
combining fiction and reality. The resulting work often takes the form of immersive installations
made up of films, objects, collages and narrative fragments sometimes specifically implicating
visitors. In The Smoking Image, Laure Prouvost has researched and imagined a story about
teenagers living in the countryside, experiencing their first amorous adventures, dreaming of
escaping, striking out on their own and for whom a scooter provides the path to freedom and
independence. Visitors traverse the teenagers' world as they move through the castle roof
gallery, finally reaching a "motorcycle-tapestry" which serves as a screen for the projection of
the film shot in Rochechouart.
Rochechouart Museum of Contemporary Art
Laure PROUVOST, Grandad’s Visitor Center, 2014, mirrors, wood, plaster, wire, mud, glass, fox stuffed, screens. Exhibition view
MDAC Rochechouart. Courtesy of the artist, of MOT international (London, Brussels) and of gallery Nathalie Obadia (Paris, Brussels).
Photography : Rochechouart museum of contemporary art
The present exhibition "We Will Go Far" and especially The Smoking Image constitute a
new chapter in Laure Prouvost's investigation into the fuzziness of identity, communication
between individuals, over-abundance of images, dream worlds and on everyone's right to
retreat into their imagination. Parallel to this exhibition, Laure Prouvost is working on another
show on the closely related theme of adolescence and cars at the Fahrenheit Foundation in
Los Angeles (winter 2015-16). Both stories would be combined into a catalogue to be
published.
Contacts:
Annabelle Ténèze, curator & museum director:
[email protected]
Olivier Prigent, public relations:
[email protected]
Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart,
Place du château,
87600 Rochechouart,
France
+33 (0) 5 55 03 77 77
www.musee-rochechouart.com
[email protected]
Museum open every day (except Tuesdays): 10 – 12.30 am & 2 – 5 pm.
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