It is difficult to describe the journey that this 32nd MONTROUGE CONTEMPORARY ART SHOW represents!
The key words defining its reality are topicality, contemporaneity and vitality given by the ebb and flow of participants, their permanent renewal without being systematic. Some "old hands" of the Salon evolve and come back with a different expression or discourse. If we consider the number of entries (around 2000), the 800 artists received and the final choice of some 200 selected at Montrouge (80 additional entries from galleries), we can feel a certain frustration, as artistic creation is doing rather well. It expresses itself with more originality, individuality, reflection and concision.
The Salon must present the maximum number of trends. However, given the somewhat labyrinthine space that is less conducive to certain installations, at Montrouge, painting reigns in all its forms. The gestural rubs shoulders with the figurative, the abstract flirts with the geometric and the informal brings the whole thing together with impertinence. The range is wide enough for everyone to find their own melody.
In 1987, a new geometric abstraction was the main trend, a logical continuation of the "pictorial madness" of the 1980s; these works propose sobriety and rigour, both aesthetically and technically. Some new surrealists also appear on the walls.
One can only regret the limited participation of conceptual and minimalist artists. The intimacy of their work does not fit in with the Hollywood blockbuster of a Salon. These works, in which the subject matter is often distorted and the image is sometimes almost absent, require a breathing space that such an abundance of material hardly provides.
Again and again, many different materials, wood, sand, pigments ... cover the canvases and give birth to varied creations where each one cooks in his own way.
One of the charms of the 1980s undoubtedly comes from these hesitant waltzes: heavy / light, colours / monochromy, gestuality / geometry: ambivalence... sometimes summarised in a single work... conceptual.
The definitive has never been a source of creation and these questionings, stammerings and successes enrich artistic production.
Very Spanish favourites, Italian discoveries and American stars chosen from the galleries complete this pictorial panorama. The increased importance of the photo and drawing sections should be noted.
The sculptures are refined and geometrized; the objects become accomplices of surrealist imaginations.
Montrouge does not suffer from exacerbated aestheticism, it persists and signs its role of Salon. Today Montrouge is a synergy of creation where biases and clichés are only winks and where we can see each other without too much discrimination with confrontation and conviviality.
One of the major artistic events of 1987 was the opening of the Musée d'Orsay. With the same desire for topicality, the idea came to present a tribute to a contemporary of Orsay: Louis VALTAT with works from 1890 to 1926.
This little known painter deserves sustained attention. The light of his Mediterranean and Breton landscapes, his beaches populated by debonair nannies or elegant women, the voluptuousness of a basket of fruit, the mischief of his forays into dressmakers' workshops and the loving and ironic sketches of family or Parisian scenes encourage the pleasure of abandoning oneself to this delicious flavour that life sometimes offers us.
Nicole GINOUX-BESSEC
Comments