Jean-Michel Othoniel — My Way — Centre Georges Pompidou — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: March 2 → May 23, 2011

The Centre Pompidou is the first major cultural institution to put on a one-man show of Jean-Michel Othoniel’s work from the beginnings of his career in 1987 to the present day.

In collaboration with the artist, the Centre Pompidou offers a retrospective of his plastic work entitled My Way. Composed of an ensemble of 24 hitherto unseen works, the exhibition traces his career from the first, confidential, intimate and poetic works and then leads the visitor to discover his monumental works of spectacular dimensions which dazzle and fire the imagination.

This journey is mapped out in different stages involving research and experimentation up until the mid-90s, when the artist began to use unpredictable, sensitive materials like sulphur, phosphorus and wax, weaving his way between beauty and repulsion. These original, rarely used materials provide the source of a reflection on the body, the suffering it endures and death. The artist explores the boundary between the organic world and the natural world and questions the limits of the genre. Then, after discovering glass, its colour and the infinite artistic possibilities of this medium which combines strength and fragility, Jean-Michel Othoniel’s work took on a more sculptural quality and acquired a new monumentalism.

The works fill the two spaces in the exhibition held in the heart of the Musée National d’Art Moderne, the Museum Gallery and the Graphic Art Gallery which have joined forces specially for this occasion. At the same time, there will be monumental works by the artist on show in the Children’s Gallery under the title Marvellous Reality.