Alain Clément — Peintures et monotypes — Catherine Putman Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

In 16 days: January 31 → March 28, 2026

The gallery is pleased to present a new exhibition by Alain Clément.

For nearly fifty years, Alain Clément has developed an abstract body of work situated between expression and compositional research.
His paintings, sculptures and etchings combine optical pleasure and sensibility with skilful construction.

From the 1960s onwards, he has been interested in materiality and painting’s inherent properties and role. He observed American painting and became involved in various movements and art groups. A friend of members of the Supports/Surfaces group, his work was distinguished by its detachment concerning the question of materials, focusing on painting itself — a physical relationship to the canvas. His relationship to painting is almost carnal, without seeking to break away from the masters, who for him are Poussin, Monet or Bram van Velde. The delectation of colour, ample brushstrokes and saturation of the canvas’ surface are some of the characteristics that punctuate his work.

The Catherine Putman Gallery has collaborated with Alain Clément since the early 1990s, publishing numerous prints and regularly exhibiting his works on paper. For the first time, the gallery will present on its walls a selection of paintings on canvas, along with a remarkable series of monotypes.

In 2025, Alain Clément tackled the creation of a new series of monotypes. This technique enables him to create unique pieces by playing with the mechanisms of printing. On a zinc plate, he makes well-defined, striking zones of flat colour in ink, tracing coils with a paintbrush or wiping off some ink with a rag, then applying little flat, cutout forms which are also inked. Once this composition of shapes and colours is completed, it is placed under a press and printed onto paper. The operation can then begin again. The master copy is erased and new inks are applied, followed by another round of ink erasure,
before repositioning shapes onto the surface, and so on.
This work thus combines the gesture of painting, plays of collage and the surprise of the imprint. It has resulted in a series of rhythmic variations, in which cut-out shapes dance across different backgrounds.

The presentation of these monotypes accompanies a selection of recent oils on canvas, fresh from the artist’s studios in Nimes and Paris. They are characterised by arabesques and interlaced designs In bright colours, whose articulations create a depth in the picture plane. This selection of paintings will be juxtaposed with several other older ones, thus illustrating both the renewal and permanency of a certain formal vocabulary in Alain Clément’s body of work.

(Monotype: engraving procedure allowing a unique copy to be obtained, by printing off a painting on a non-porous medium
such as metal or glass.)

Alain Clément was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1941.He lives and works in Nîmes, Paris and Berlin.
From 1970, he taught at Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier, then leaving it for the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes, becoming the Director in 1985. His work is featured in numerous public collections. Works have recently been added to the Centre Pompidou-National Museum of Modern Art, the Fabre Museum in Montpellier and the Carré d’Art in Nîmes. A monumental free canvas from 1982, belonging to the Cnap, is currently hanging on the walls of the Palazzo Farnese, the French Embassy in Rome. His work is regularly exhibited in Germany, Korea and France.