Bernard Moninot — Le vent cesse — Catherine Putman Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Ends in about 2 months: January 11 → March 1, 2025

The gallery is pleased to present “Le vent cesse” [The Wind Drops], the new exhibition by Bernard Moninot that will run from 11 January to 1 March 2025.

The practice of drawing is central in Bernard Moninot’s oeuvre. The choice of artworks presented in the exhibition shows the variety of techniques and the tireless research into new procedures in his work, as well as attesting to his relationship to drawing, described by Jean-Christophe Bailly as follows: “The work of Bernard Moninot does not fit into any of the major expressive categories. […] It’d be most accurate to say that it is akin to drawing: but an enlarged drawing (in the sense that Novalis was able to speak of an ‘enlarged poetry’) deployed into spatial objects, on or through tracing materials and with an utterly original line.”

Created in the summer of 2024, “Le vent cesse” is the most recent and monumental work in the exhibition (106 × 233 cm). The observation of points of view in blind valleys (1)  — these landscapes of the Jura with which Bernard Moninot is familiar — provided the impetus for his action, which, with the exquisite tenderness of pastel traced on velvet paper, freely transcribes surfaces that are articulated like a stroll through space.

Onto his drawing, the artist has superimposed that of a tree. He set up an ingenious machine in his workshop that enables him to directly record the movements of a pine tree branch in his garden, agitated by the wind. Thus applied, the ink traces a line that seeks to capture the uncapturable. We might say, along with Henri Michaux, that in this way: “It heads towards a place of calm and peace where it finally ceases to be wind.” (2)

The principle of superposition of two drawings can be found in all of the twenty “Paysages” [Landscapes] from 2021, in variable dimensions. A far cry from the Jura valleys, these fragmented urban landscapes come from the observation of construction sites, of concrete, glass and steel, of which Bernard Moninot delivers a fantasised reality. Made of two-layer acrylic — a polyester canvas in the foreground backed by marouflage canvas on wood — these works with compositions structured by straight lines and grids evoke the windows and conservatories of the early 1970s and his fascination for transparency. With a completely different line, they also refer to the artist’s hand as it wanders, to the restoration of depth, and to the meanders of a landscape.

In 2023, the series “Tipp-Ex partition” (hommage à Pascal Dusapin) [Tipp-Ex Score (Tribute to Pascal Dusapin)] (3) leads us into another register, in which sight and gesture are suddenly connected by the evocation of sound. In works like Silent Listen or Le Fil d’alerte [Thread of Alert], the artist worked on the relationship between image and sound, via installations or drawings. With sparse means and great delicacy, his lines traced in correction fluid on thin Japanese paper evoke musical scores. “As you probably know, I am a virtuoso of Tipp-Ex (correction fluid in roller form) but whereas I use it to erase something; you, you use it to make things appear…” Pascal Dusapin replied in mirror image.

Finally, the moving “Suite ukrainienne” [Ukrainian Suite] from 2023 provides a variation on the detail of the hand gesture of the woman in Bronzino’s painting “Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time” (1540–1550). All of the twenty drawings (four of which will be shown), were created using the flame from an acetylene nozzle that deposits the black of the smoke onto a damp sheet of paper on which an aluminium stencil is placed. As it dries, a chemical reaction causes the carbon layer to fragment and disperse like shattered glass after an explosion, illustrating the fragility of this hand.

(1) Blind valleys are narrow, deep valleys or gorges, lined with cliffs that end in cul-de-sacs at the base of which a cave or subterranean network brings forth a waterway that then stretches into the depths of the valley.
(2) Henri Michaux, La Nuit remue, 1987, Gallimard
(3) Born in 1955, Pascal Dusapin is a contemporary French musical composer. He is the author of many pieces for soloists, chamber music and large orchestra, as well as lyrical works, and he is renowned for his operas.