Vue de l'exposition "Bernard Quentin : Des êtres et des lettres" en juin 2023

VERTIGE (VERTIGO), 1989 Bernard Quentin

Dimensions : 103 × 152 cm
Year : 1989
Thèmes : writing
Signature : Signé et daté “bernard quentin 89”
Medium : Acrylic
Support : tissue mounted on canvas
Ton : Colorful
Mouvement : Abstract art

More informations

"The most vibrant modernity allies itself with the quest for origins. Familiar with Picasso, Quentin begins with a furious graphic style derived from Guernica. The decisive discovery of Klee in Bern, also influential for Michaux, withdraws him from expressionism and brings him back to the primitive magic of signs and letters. He welcomes and freely transposes learned codes, hieroglyphics, cuneiforms, ideograms, alphabets, archaic inscriptions, and popular graffiti that inspire Tapies and Dubuffet, while also looking at medieval tapestries with narrative legends."

Jean Leymarie, Quentin Des Graffiti de 1947 aux monuments du 3e millénaire.

Towards the end of the 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Bernard Quentin created a series of large-scale canvases in which he incorporated words into colorful abstract compositions. In this particular piece, the word «vertigo»

is painted multiple times and appears to float. The viewer is drawn to «vertigo» due to its distinctive violet color, applied in a prominent size and repeated at a smaller scale. The smaller-sized words seem to move in a circular motion around the larger main element.

The artist continues his exploration of writing with this series, employing the word to evoke a concept or sensation in the viewer without directly representing its referent.

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