Persdossier-Expositie-Kees-Visser-Musée-Matisse by Laurianne Booden

Matisse Departmental Museum Palais Fénelon 59360 Le Cateau-Cambrésis T. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 50/F. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 54 museematisse@cg59.fr www.cg59.fr

KEES VISSER Retrospective exhibition

5 July – 4 October 2009

No name (yellow and green trapeze), 1992, acrylic paint on paper, H39.5 X L54.5 cm, courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Thijs Quispel.

Conseil Général du Nord

Matisse Departmental Museum

Sarah Philippe

Laetitia Messager

2, rue Jacquemars Giélée

Palais Fénelon

59047 Lille Cedex

59360 Le Cateau-Cambrésis

T. 33 (0)3 59 73 83 44

T. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 78

F. 33 (0)3 59 73 83 69

F. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 54

sarahphilippe@cg59.fr

lmessagercartigny@cg59.fr

Site : www.cg59.fr

Site : www.cg59.fr/matisse

Summary

Press release

pages 3/5

Exhibition presentation

pages 6/7

Kees Visser biographical notes

pages 8/10

Artists’ interventions at the Museum Installation in situ by Philippe Richard

Rien à voir avec Henri Matisse (nothing to do with Matisse)

page 11

Useful information

page 12

Work by Kees Visser mentioned in the text

pages 13/14

Press release Once a year, since 2002, the Matisse Departmental Museum has invited an artist to design the layout of a monographic exhibition in correlation with the collections of the Herbin and Matisse museums. This varied programme of exhibitions confirms the position of the museum at the heart of today’s artistic creation through questions linked to painting and abstract art. This summer, the museum has chosen to present the first retrospective exhibition of the Dutch artist KEES VISSER (born in Holland in 1948) from the 4th of July to the 4th of October 2009. Kees Visser made a name for himself in France in the middle of the 1990’s with his methodical work on series, shapes and colours, illustrated by his large size monochrome paintings on paper depicting rectangular figures, slightly biased at the edges, rising to the surface of the paper as if crystallized. Ill. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22). Conceived in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition layout includes about sixty works of art ranging from the artist's early work in the beginning of the 70's to his most recent monumental paintings. A large wall painting has been created in situ as a tribute to Matisse’s work. The exhibition goes back over the life and work of this singular artist, who made his way as a self-taught artist, far removed from art schools and artistic trends of which he was nevertheless a careful observer. After leaving Holland, his native country, in the middle of the 1970’s, at a time when his work was oscillating between abstraction and Fluxus, (Ill. 1, 2, 3) Kees Visser moved to Iceland where he lived for almost twenty years in close contact with nature and in primal surroundings which strongly influenced his work. He moved in very cosmopolitan artistic circles including artists such as Dieter Roth, Donald Judd, Richard Serra, Roni Horn, Hrein Fridffinson, Adrian Schiess, Gunther Umberg and even Richard Long. Co-founder, with a group of Icelandic artists, of the Living Art Museum of Reykjavik in 1978, Kees Visser has become a prominent figure in Iceland’s art scene. He is present in most public and private collections of the country, and the National Gallery of Iceland (Reykjavik) is planning a monographic exhibition dedicated to his work in 2010. Gathered in the first rooms of the exhibition, are paintings, drawings on paper, pictures and objects created by the artist during that period. Invited to come to Paris in the middle of the 1990’s, it is in France that Kees Visser begun his methodical work on series, creating the large size monochrome paintings on paper presented in the largest room of the exhibition. His work is based on a list of shapes and colours registered in a reasoned catalogue which the artist has been developing since 1992, following a precise method. The density of the pictures is obtained by applying successive layers of paint whose pigments penetrate into the paper until they produce what Jerôme Poggi - the commissioner of the exhibition - refers to as a crystallization process. Acid green, golden yellow, deep black, dark blue, purple and dark red rise to the surface of the paper, as if reverting to a basic pigment. One is reminded of the sensual colours in Matisse’s work and the enigmatic shades of the Icelandic countryside. For the museum, Kees Visser has created a collection of paintings entitled FEW, as a tribute to three emblematic figures of the twentieth century, which have accompanied him in his artistic quest: Freud, Einstein and Wittgenstein. In addition to these works of art, which he now exclusively creates on paper, Kees Visser has progressively integrated in his work as a colourist, the notion of working on surrounding setting, experimenting with different layouts, in which his paintings are juxtaposed, superposed, laid out on the ground, lined up in

showcases several meters long, recomposed as mosaics, etc (Ill. 17, 18, 19, 20). It is this preoccupation with space in a general sense which led him to carry out in situ interventions in the shape of large wall paintings or monumental installations, such as his recent work in a chapel at Thouars (2006) and in the Saint Eustache church in Paris (2007). For the Matisse Departmental Museum, Kees Visser has created a large wall painting (presented in the last room of the exhibition as a tribute to Matisse’s work) designed as a chromatic scale composed of very fine coloured bands, and inspired by the biased edges of the rectangular forms in his paintings. Nowadays, Kees Visser lives and works in Haarlem, Paris and Reykjavik. The exhibited work comes from the artist's workshop in Haarlem (Holland), public collections (National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik) and French, Dutch, German and Icelandic private collections.

<Exhibition commission The exhibition commissioners are Emilie Ovaere, deputy curator of the Matisse Departmental Museum, and Jerôme Poggi, historian and art critic. The exhibition is being held in collaboration with Objet de production, Paris. Émilie Ovaere is the curator of the Cateau-Cambrésis Matisse Departmental Museum. She is also in charge of the Contemporary Art and Herbin collections. She is the commissioner of the exhibitions Buraglio, Viallat, Frydman, Dilworth, Piffaretti, They were inspired by Matisse. In 2004, she set up a Carte Blanche exhibition program including installations in situ on the ground floor of the museum. She is currently working at the Sao Paolo Art Gallery on the first exhibition about Matisse in Brazil: Matisse Hoje, which will be opening in September 2009. Jérôme Poggi An Economics Engineer from the Ecole Centrale in Paris, Jérôme Poggi was qualified at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) and holds a Master’s Degree in Art History from the Université Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne. He teaches at the Ecole Centrale in Paris and in several FrancoAmerican university programmes. He worked for several years in institutional art circles. Abroad, as the artistic attaché of the General Consulate of France in Atlanta from 1997 to 1998, in France, as deputy director of the Kerguéhennec Contemporary Art Centre from 1998 to 2001, and as general coordinator for the Inter-professional Contemporary Art Congress from 2001 to 2002. In 2004, he founded Objet de production, of which he is the current director, and which involves the following artists: Kees Visser, Dominique Furgé, Philippe Caurant and Cédrick Eymenier. Since 2008, he has been working to develop the Nouveaux Commanditaire Programme (New Sponsors Programme), with the support of the Fondation de France. He is currently co-directing a series of films, with François Hers, on the most emblematic actions undertaken within this programme in the last fifteen years. A cultural and art historian, Jérôme Poggi is specialised in the history of cultural politics and art trade, with a particular interest in the study of art market alternatives experimented during the 19 th century. He is the author of several articles on the subject, and is preparing a book about ‘the gallery of the Boulevard des italiens (1859-1865) – the antechamber of modernity’. At the end of the year, he will also be publishing a collection of texts by Edvard Munch (Presses du Réel). He regularly publishes critiques of contemporary artists and runs commissions for several exhibitions.

Objet de production Since its creation in 2004 by Jérôme Poggi, the vocation of Objet de production has been to initiate and promote all forms of art existing today, occurring in a public or private environment. A production agency and a gallery, as much as a place for study and discussion, Objet de production aims to create a tool that is adapted to the structural changes of today’s art scene, combining political, commercial, critical and

educational means of action. Basically, Objet de production acts on all levels of the artistic process, focusing its action on four fundamental issues (production, promotion, training, intellectual considerations). In May 2009, Objet de production opened new premises in Paris, covering an area of 200m2, near the Gare du Nord, at 115/117, rue La Fayette (Paris Xème). www.objetdeproduction.com

<Catalogue The exhibition includes a catalogue with comprehensive illustrations, essays and a list of exhibited work. The introduction is by Emilie Ovaere, Deputy Curator of the Matisse Departmental Museum, the main text is by Jérôme Poggi, the Exhibition Commissioner, and the essay by Thomas Lange, Art Historian. Bilingual catalogue, French and English. Size: 19.5 cm x 28.5 cm, 114 pages, 120 full-colour illustrations (50 full page illustrations, 50 half page illustrations, 20 quarter page illustrations) Price: approximately 25 €, for sale in the museum bookshop

Friday 3 July 2009 Press invitation Departure from Paris Gare du Nord station – Lille Flandre station (TGV n° 7021, departure 8.58 am, arrival 10.00 am) Bus from Lille (meeting point 20 metres from the station) Bus departure time for Le Cateau-Cambrésis: 10.15 am. 11.15 am Refreshments served in the café 11.30 am Guided visit of the Kees Visser exhibition 12.45 am Cold buffet in the little café 3.00 pm Return trip to Lille 4.30 pm Departure from Lille station 5.32 pm Arrival at the Gare du Nord in Paris.

Saturday 4 July 2009 Study morning With Dominique Abensour, Hubert Besacier, Daniel Bosser, Jérôme Poggi, and Kees Visser. The study morning will be dedicated to Kees Visser's work. The artist wished to be surrounded by people who helped him in his artistic quest and contributed to the promotion of his work in France: Dominique Abensour organised a personal exhibition in 2007 at the Le Quartier Art Centre in Quimper, of which she was the director up until 2008. Hubert Besacier is an art critic and was the author of a text about Kees Visser in the French review: Pratiques, in 2004. Daniel Bosser is a French Contemporary Art collector. He was invited by the museum in 2005 to present selected items of his collection, among which figured a number of Kees Visser’s works of art.

<Exhibition preview 4.00 pm, free admission

<Meeting with the artist 5

Sunday 27 September at 2.30 pm (date may be subject to change).

Exhibition presentation A retrospective exhibition It would be a mistake to consider Kees Visser simply as a formalist painter. How could anyone be, at the beginning of the new millennium and forty years after the Minimal and Conceptual Art movements? Neither is he one of those mystical or metaphysical painters who invested geometrical shapes with a supreme and absolute, almost religious, ideal of perfection, as Mondrian and Malévitch did in their time. How could it still make sense today, a century later, in our modern geometric world, where there are symbols and signs on every street corner, and letters and mirrors everywhere. Kees Visser belongs to that generation of artists, who like Adrian Schiess, John Armleder, Gerwald Rockenschaub, Allan Mc Collum, Allan Charlton and Peter Halley had to deal, in the eighties, with the heritage of Postmodern Art, where after having been deconstructed and thoroughly analysed, an artist’s work needed to be reinvested as an expression of Art and reconsidered in the context of an art scene that was gradually becoming more institutionalised. While some considered the answer to the situation was corruption, radicalisation, and infiltration, and others, derision, proliferation and sophistication. Kees Visser opted for the slower process of distancing himself from trends and schools, achieving a state of crystallization in order to rediscover the lost notion of necessity in Art. The retrospective part of the exhibition retraces this intellectual progression The work of the artist in the 70's, 80's and 90's is presented in chronological order in three cabinets which open onto a large room where the artist's work, from 1992 to the present day, is exhibited in a fifteen-metre-long showcase, designed by Kees Visser himself.

From Haarlem to Reykjavik and Paris The cabinet exhibiting Kees Visser’s artwork from the 1970’s, shows his work on paper in which he expresses a sensitivity close to the Fluxus group and reveals his taste for letters and language in visual poems which call to mind the masterpieces by Emmet Williams, John Cage or even James Joyce (Ill. 2). A more formalist, perhaps even minimalist, sensitivity is discernible in several pictures with linear and spiral figures drawn in ink or poster paint, as well as in his work Synapse, symbolising the human train of thought using lines and colours (Ill. 1). Strongly influenced by Wittgenstein’s work, Kees Visser became particularly interested in questions of logic rational thought, and sounding the mechanism of thought and language, not with the philosopher’s tools but with those of the painter and artist. It is after a first trip to Iceland in 1976, that he started plaiting books together, page by page, tying together the two languages: Dutch and Icelandic, in a formal, linguistic and cultural bond. Soon after this, he started plaiting pictures, tying together comic strips, newspapers, magazines, banknotes, letters, music partitions, etc, in regular linear shapes (Chez vous, 1977-78). At the turn of the 70's and the 80's, Kees Visser created a method for converting these plaited shapes into paintings, using a basic system of nine colours. The result was geometrical compositions on paper or canvas, bearing a similarity with De Stijl’s Neoplasticism (closer to Bart van der Leck than Mondrian) and influenced by constructivism, structuralism and concrete Art (Ill. 4, 5, 6, 7). Perhaps as a way of escaping this type of comparison, at the time when a geometry crisis was emerging on the international art scene, Kees Visser decided to quit painting in the middle of the 80’s. Returning to a

subversive and impulsive approach closer to the Fluxus group, he created a number of artist’s books and experimented with different engraving techniques at the Reykjavik Art School where he was teaching. He also experimented with metal sculpture, built objects in painted wood, whose designs stood somewhere between a piece of furniture and a picture (Rimlaverk) (ill. 8). He opened a gallery in Amsterdam specialized in artist’s books (among which those created by Dieter Roth, Emmet Williams, Dorothy Lanone) and organised several exhibitions at the Living Art Museum in Reykjavik, with an exhibition program that included Roni Horn, Michel Verjux, François Perrodin, Christoph Ruttimann, Jan Schoonhoven and Douwe Jan Bakker.

1992, the turning point It was while he was working at the Living Art Museum, during the founding exhibition in 1992, that Kees Visser decided to take up painting again. Inspired by a midnight dream, a large red Rimlaverk is exhibited among other painted objects – this painting was gracefully given on loan to the Matisse Departmental Museum by the National Gallery of Iceland for the exhibition. The initial sketch, drawn on graduated paper then put down in painting, served as the prototype of the biased rectangular shape now used by the artist as a pattern. It also inaugurated the reasoned catalogue in which he has been listing his paintings over the last fifteen years (Ill. 13, 14). The same year, Kees Visser began working on Wall paintings, building chromatic scales using fine strips cut from the rectangles in his paintings (Ill. 15, 16). While keeping a work studio there, Kees Visser left Iceland in 1993 and moved to France where he began developing his method based on the reasoned catalogue he created, gradually departing from the strict colour code he had been following until then. A bit at a time, he began preparing colour in a more intuitive way, transforming the mechanical act of painting into a form of meditation. Colour is applied in layers (at least 10 of them), until the paint crystallizes on the surface of the paper as if reverting to a basic pigment. As he began mastering this technique, Kees Visser discovered that it gave him more and more liberty. From then on, he became interested in the surrounding setting of his work. He experimented with different displays during important personal exhibitions (The Credac in Ivry in 1995, the Nîmes Art School, 1998 & 2000, the Contemporary Art Centre Tent in Rotterdam in 2004, the Contemporary Art Centre of BouvayLadubay in 2005, the Art Centre Le Quartier in Quimper in 2007 and in several other Parisian exhibition rooms with Objet de production in 2007). His concern about the way his work was being exhibited led him to conceive monumental installations in situ, where colour and architecture blend together (Thouars 2006, Saint-Eustache 2007) (Ill. 17/22).

A Tribute to Matisse and a few others… The artist’s work over the last fifteen years is exhibited in two rooms of the museum, illustrating the diversity with which Kees Visser apprehends colour, not only as an element in his work, but also as an element of its display. Twenty large size monochrome paintings are exhibited in the largest room of the museum, arranged in pairs, triptychs, entire series, on plain paper or stuck on aluminium, hanging from picture rails or laid out on the ground. Among these, is a new triptych which the artist specially created after the Matisse Departmental Museum invited him for this retrospective exhibition, presenting his career as an artist for over thirty years. It is Entitled FEW, as a tribute to three great figures of the 20 th century: Freud, Einstein and Wittgenstein. His work, which Kees Visser considers himself as emblematic, reveals how, in spite of their apparent radicalism and minimalism, Kees Visser’s paintings call for vision, rational thought and imagination. The last room of the exhibition holds a large wall painting which Kees Visser specially created in situ for the Matisse Departmental Museum as a tribute to the stained-glass window The Bees which Henri Matisse initially created for the Chapelle de Vence, but finally offered to the Cateau-Cambrésis nursery school with the idea of creating a magic pattern of colour resembling a bright spirit. Hanging on the opposite wall are the thirty-two paintings which make up the W series, created by Kees Visser in 1999, as a chromatic variation on commercially available shades of yellow (Ill. 18).

<Visiting Matisse’s monumental stained-glass window The Bees in the CateauCambrésis Kees Visser has created a wall painting in situ, included in the exhibition as a tribute to Henri Matisse’s stained-glass window: The Bees, in the Matisse nursery school of Cateau-Cambrésis.

Guided visits on Saturday and Sunday, once every second week, from 4.30 pm to 5.30 pm, on the 4, 12, 18 and 26 July and on the 1, 9, 15, 23 and 29 August. Meeting point in the entrance hall of the museum. From September, guided visits will be organized every first Saturday of the month by a museum mediator and every first Sunday of the month by a tourist board guide. If you wish more information, please call 03 27 84 64 58.

Kees Visser biographical notes Kees Visser Personal exhibitions 1976 1978 1980 1982 1983 1985 1987 1988 1990

1992 1995

1996 1998

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

SUM Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Fignal Gallery, Amsterdam (NL) Loa Gallery, Amsterdam (NL) The Corridor Gallery, Reykjavik (NL) Rauda Husid, Akureyri (IS) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) The Corridor Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Pieter Brattinga Gallery, Amsterdam (NL) The Corridor Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) Korpulfsstadir, Reykjavik (IS) Birgir Andresson Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Krokur Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) The Corridor Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Krokur Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Slunkariki Gallery, Isafjordur (IS) Saevar Karl Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) Art Centre, CREDAC, Ivry-sur-Seine (F) The Office Gallery, Tel Aviv, (ISR) Zion House, Jerusalem (ISR) George Verney-Carron Gallery, Villeurbanne (F) Michel Voisin Centre, Biot (F) Ingolfsstraeti 8 Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Artem Gallery, Quimper (F) Kunsthalle Palazzo, (with Arianne Epars) Liestal (CH) Art School, Nimes (F) Rob de Vries Gallery, Haarlem (NL) Vishal, Haarlem (NL) University of Paris, St. Charles Centre, Paris (F) C/O Daniel Bosser, Paris (F) Art School, Nimes (F) Jakob + MacFarlane, Architecture Agency, Paris (F) Rob de Vries Gallery, Haarlem (NL) Philippe Pannetier Gallery, Nimes (F) Site Odeon 5 Gallery, Paris (F) C/O Daniel Bosser, (with Martina Klein), Paris (F) Presentation of the ‘Reasoned catalogue’, Bookstorming, Paris (F) TENT, Rotterdam, (NL) Philippe Pannetier Gallery, Nimes (F) Contemporary Art Center, Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur (F) De Boterhal, Hoorn (NL) Jeanne d’Arc chapel, Thouars, (F) ASÍ Art Museum, Reykjavík, (IS) Contemporary Art Centre, le Quartier, Quimper (F)

2008 2009

St. Eustache church, Paris (F) Objet de production, Hôtel Missa, Paris, (F) Stichting Kunstruimte 09, Groningen (NL) Philippe Pannetier Gallery, Nimes (F) Musée Matisse, Cateau Cambresis, (F) Objet de production, Paris, (F)

Collections: Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem (NL) Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam [municipal] (NL) Gemeente Museum, Den Haag (graphics) (NL) P.T.T., Holland (NL) Rijksverzameling, Holland [state] (NL) National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik (IS) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) Museum of Modern Art (graphics), New York (USA) Rauma Cultural Centre, Rauma (SF) The Victoria and Albert Museum (graphics), London (GB) Kjarvalstadir, Municipal Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (P) National Contemporary Art Fund (FNAC) (F) Safn, Reykjavík, (IS) ASÍ Art Museum, Reykjavík, (IS) FRAC-Brittany, Rennes (F) Collective exhibitions 1973 1974 1975 1978 1979 1980 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987

1988

1989 1990 1993 1994 1995 1996

Frans Hals Museum, De Vleeshal, Haarlem (NL) Frans Halsmuseum, De Vishal, Haarlem (NL) Frans Halsmuseum, De Vishal, Haarlem (NL) SUM Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Kjarvalstadir, Municipal Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Korpulfsstadir “Experimental Environment”, Reykjavik (IS) 80 Langtonstreet, San Francisco (USA0 A Gallery, Amsterdam (NL) Franklin Furnace, New York (USA) Kulturhaus Palazzo, Liestal (CH) Minipresse Buchmesse, Mainz (D) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) Vrije Akademie, Den Haag (NL) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) Kunstwinkel, Enschede (NL) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum Culture House, Turku (SF) Rauma Museum , Rauma (SF) Stadsbibliotheek, Amsterdam (NL) De Gele Rijder, Arnhem (NL) Buchgalerie Walter Konig, Koln (D) Monica Strauss Gallery, New York (USA) Camille von Scholz Gallery, Brussels (B) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) Listahatid, the Reykjavik Art Festival, Reykjavik (IS) The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw Wyspa Gallery, Gdanzk (P) Tanya Rumpff Gallery, ‘Aspekten van Abstrakte Schilderkunst’, Haarlem (NL) The National Gallery of Iceland, ‘Acquisitions’, Reykjavik (IS) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, ‘Tribute to Jon Gunnar’, Reykjavik (IS) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (IS) Kjarvalstadir, the Reykjavik Municipal Art Gallery, Reykjavik (IS) Anton Weller/Isabelle Surret Gallery, ‘Chez l’Un l’Autre’, Paris (F) Frans Hals Museum ,Vleeshal, Gem. Aankopen, [Acquisitions], Haarlem (NL)

1997 1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007 2008 2009 2010

Frans Hals Museum, Vleeshal, Gem. Aankopen, [Acquisitions], Haarlem (NL) Frans Hals Museum, Vleeshal, Gem. Aankopen, [Acquisitions], Haarlem (NL) The National Gallery of Iceland, ‘Erlend Verk’, Reykjavik (IS) Regional Contemporary Art Centre, le Musee du Chateau des Ducs de Wurtemberg, l’Abstraction & ces Territoires, Montbeliard (F) Historical and Archaeological Museum, les Instruments de la Passion, Nimes (F) Nylistasafnid, the Living Art Museum, Safnsyning, Reykjavik (IS) Frans Hals Museum, Vleeshal, Gem. Aankopen, [Acquisitions], Haarlem (NL) Kunst RAI Amsterdam, Rob de Vries Gallery, (Haarlem) (NL) Rob de Vries Gallery, Haarlem (NL) Jour/Agnes b Gallery, Jean Fournier: Carte Blanche pour la Couleur, Paris (F) Safnasafnid, Svalbardsströnd (IS) Kunst RAI Amsterdam, Rob de Vries Gallery, (Haarlem) (NL) De Fotosalon, Vishal, Haarlem (NL) Artem Gallery, hors champs (F) Kölner Kunstmesse, i8, Reykjavík (ÍS) Francais de Rabat Institute, Double Abstraction, (with Arelie Nemours, Marthe Wery, Julije Knifer, Jean-Pierre Bertrand), Rabat (MR) Office-Opus-Facere-Faire-Oeuvre, Archaeological Museum, Nîmes (F) Rob de Vries Gallery, MIX 8,Haarlem (NL) Kunst RAI Amsterdam, Rob de Vries Gallery, (Haarlem), (NL) ‘NAUMHYGGJA’, National Gallery, Reykjavik, (IS) ‘Beeckenstijn’, Velsen (NL) shoot rage hipp, (photography), Philippe Pannetier Gallery, Nimes (F) Paquet, Artem Gallery, Quimper (F) Special Feria, Philippe Pannetier Gallery, Nimes (F) Kunst RAI Amsterdam, Rob de Vries Gallery, (Haarlem), (NL) FIAC, Foire de Paris, Eric Linard Editions, Garde Adhemar (F) Islenzk Myndlist 1980-2000, National Gallery, Reykjavik, (IS) Rotterdam Art, Rob de Vries Gallery, (Haarlem), (NL) Brussels Art, Rob de Vries Gallery, Haarlem (NL/B) Philippe Pannetier Gallery, Nimes (F), 14th Monumental Art Exhibition of Ivry, CREDAC, Ivry-sur-Seine (F) Kunst RAI Amsterdam, Rob de Vries Gallery, Haarlem (NL) Rob de Vries Gallery, ODE, Haarlem [NL] Rotterdam Art, Rob de Vries Gallery, (Haarlem), (NL) Kunst RAI Amsterdam, Rob de Vries Gallery, (Haarlem), (NL) d’Un Lieu l’Autre works from the Daniel Bosser Collection, Chateau de Tanlay, Tanlay(F) Histoire intra-muros, Cantoisel workshop, Joigny (F) Rob de Vries Gallery, Haarlem (NL) De leur temps, private French collections, Museum of Art, Tourcoing (F) Dislocatie Provinciehuis Noord-Holland, Haarlem (NL) extraits/Daniel Bosser collection, Matisse Museum, Cateau Cambresis (F) abstracte salon-deel 2, Stichting Kunstruimte 09, Groningen (NL) Helder Weer, Vishal, Haarlem (NL) ‘Par Amour’, George Verney-Carron Gallery, Lyon (F) LOKAAL ABSTRACT, RC de Ruimte, IJmuiden, (NL) The Living Art Museum, Reykjavík, (with Thór Vigfússon and Ívar Valgardsson) (IS) Arti and Amicitiae, Amsterdam (NL) art multiple Concrete Art Centre, Mouans-Sartoux, (F) Concrete Zaken, Nieuwe Vide, Haarlem, (NL) ROOM WITH A VIEW-De Bouwfonds Kunstcollectie, Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, (NL) i8 Gallery Reykjavik (IS) Foire de Bruxelles Les Formes et La Couleur, Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur, (F) Hin klassísku gildi, National Gallery, Reykjavik, (IS) Straumar- Listasafn ASI, Reykjavik, (IS) Art Copenhagen, i8 Gallery, (IS/DK) Surface to air, Objet de production, Paris, (F) Mondriaanhuis, Amesrsfoort (NL)

Artists' interventions at the Matisse Departmental Museum Philippe Richard, Rien à voir avec Henri Matisse (nothing to do with Henri Matisse) Installation in situ, museum ground floor and rooms

Since Autumn 2006, the Matisse Departmental Museum has regularly invited contemporary artists for interventions in the hall of the museum. The selected artists openly claim to be influenced by Matisse’s and Herbin’s work in their way of painting, they pay very careful attention to colour and to the relation between architecture and space. In 2006, Christophe Cuzin underlined the volumes of the building with bright tape and, in 2007, Pierre Mabille worked on the windows and created an ephemeral stained-glass window entitled L'air est une couleur (air is a colour). These interventions continue in the spirit of the Carte Blanche exhibition programme, which was held during four years in one of the rooms of the museum now dedicated to the Tériade donation. These interventions are an original way to settle a dialogue with Modern Art collections while positioning the museum at the heart of today’s artistic creation. They offer an opportunity for public education through a number of events, such as meetings with artists and workshops for children and adults. A small 16-page booklet, including an interview with the artist and photographs in situ, is published and handed out free to the public. Decorative patterns flourish in the work of Philippe Richard, each layer of paint composed of spirals, dots and hatching, allowing the juxtaposed patterns beneath to show through. In the last few years, Philippe Richard’s painting has spread out of the picture frame into the surrounding setting and nearby walls, like paint spilling out over monumental installations created from bits of wood fitted into one another and painted in bright colours. This triumphant explosion of colour and decorative patterns clearly recalls the odalisques Matisse placed in rooms with mismatching patterned fabric. For his intervention at the Matisse Departmental Museum, Pierre Richard decorated the entrance hall, the balconies and the terraces of the building to create the illusion of art snaking through the museum and living on it, in the most unexpected places, as a parasite. For the first time, an artist is free to carry out an intervention in the exhibition rooms of the museum, aiming to create a straightforward and surprising dialogue. Philippe Richard is represented in France by the Bernard Jordan gallery (77 rue Charlot, 75003 Paris).

Useful information EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL SERVICES MATISSE DEPARTMENTAL MUSEUM A Nord Department Museum Palais Fénelon, 59360 Le Cateau-Cambrésis T. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 50 - F. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 54 http:/www.cg59.fr/ e-mail museematisse@cg59.fr OPENING HOURS 10.00 am – 6.00 pm. Closed on Tuesday. ADMISSION FEE The admission fee includes: the permanent collection, exhibition and audio guided visit children/adults, French, English, Dutch. € 4.50 Adult fee € 3.00 Reduced fee (groups of 15 visitors, students, visitors over sixty, Avantage card , unemployed visitors, Amis des musées, Cezam and Srias cards) Free admission: children and teenagers under 18, visitors entitled to the CMU (universal health coverage), disabled visitors entitled to the COTOREP card, art students. Free admission every first Sunday of the month, Jounées du Patrimoine (National Heritage Day). ACCESS The museum building provides complete access for disabled visitors. Parc Fénélon access. The town of Cateau-Cambrésis is situated in the South of the Nord Department, 30 km from Valenciennes, Cambrai and Saint-Quentin. Driving there: From Paris: Paris-Cambrai motorway (A1 then A2) (170km), then D 643 from Cambrai to CateauCambrésis (22 km) From Lille or Brussels : Valenciennes motorway, Le Cateau-Cambrésis exit then D 955, (90 km from Lille) (30 km from Valenciennes). Going by train : Paris (Gare du Nord) - CateauCambrésis or Busigny Note: Busigny is a 15-minute taxi ride from the museum. The Corail-Intercity Paris-Maubeuge trains run week-end services to the Cateau-Cambrésis station.

GUIDED VISITS Available to the general public without booking. On Sunday from 10.30 am to 2.30 pm and on Saturday at 2.30 pm. FAMILY ACTIVITIES The educational and cultural service is pleased to invite families for an afternoon at the museum. Artistic Workshops are organized for children so they can have fun while adults enjoy a visit of the museum guided by an art historian. During school summer holidays. Information – dates and booking: T. 33(0)3 27 84 64 58 ART WORKSHOPS For children from 4 years: During summer holidays (closed on Tuesday) from 6 July to 30 August, from 10.30 am to 12.30 am and from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm. These workshops are centred around the exhibitions in the morning, and around the collections in the afternoon. Outside school holidays on Wednesday and Sunday from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm. Adults - From the month of September every second Wednesday, from 6.00 pm to 9.00 pm. Information – dates and booking: T. 33(0)3 27 84 64 58 GROUPS - BOOKING REQUIRED Guided visits and activities for young visitors: 80 € / adult - 50 € / young adult. Information and booking: T. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 64. F. 33 (0)3 27 84 64 65 sandrine.labiause@cg59.fr. Booklets available upon request.

PRESS RELATIONS Matisse Departmental Museum Laetitia Messager Tel.: 33 (0)3 27 84 64 78 lmessagercartigny@cg59.fr Conseil général du Nord Sarah Philippe Tel.: 33 (0)3 59 73 83 44 sarahphilippe@cg59.fr Press CD Rom available upon request (highdefinition images)

Work by Keith Visser mentioned in the text

Ill. 2 - Sans titre (It is what it is), 1974-1975, acrylique au pochoir sur papier, H65 X L50 cm, courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Kees Visser.

Ill. 4 - Sans titre (prototype II), 1978, gouache sur papier, H35.8 X L25 cm. Courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Kees Visser.

Ill. 5 - Sans titre (prototype), 1978, Tressage de papier, 36 X 25 cm, Courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Kees Visser.

Ill. 6 - Weave no.1.t. 1977, tressage de papier, crayon et encre sur papier, L25 x H36 cm, courtesy Objet de production, Paris © Philippe Bernard.

Ill. 7 - Sans titre (Poet), peinture sur papier d’après tissage, 1977/1983,67.5 X 52 cm, courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Philippe Bernard.

Ill. 9 - Maquette pour SUM (Reykjavik), 1991, peinture industrielle et crayon sur papier, H54.5 X L39.5 cm, courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Thijs Quispel.

Ill. 10 - Sans titre (Circle down naples yellow light), 1992, acrylique sur papier, H54.5 X L39.5, courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Philippe Bernard.

Ill. 17 - Vue de l'exposition au centre d’art de Bouvet Ladubay, 2005. © André Morin Ill.11 - Sans titre (Six Lines), 1992, acrylique sur papier, 54.5 X 39.5 cm, courtsey Objet de production, Paris. © Thijs Quispel.

Ill. 18 - Série W (au fond), 1999. Vue de l'exposition au centre d’art de Bouvet Ladubay, 2005. © André Morin. Ill . 12 - Sans titre (trapèze jaune et vert), 1992, acrylique sur papier, H39.5 X L54.5 cm, courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Thijs Quispel.

Ill. 19 - Vue de l'exposition à l’Hôtel de Missa, Objet de production, septembre 2007. © André Morin. Ill. 13 - Série F1 du catalogue raisonné, 1992, peinture et crayon sur papier millimétré, coll. de l’artiste. © Kees Visser.

Ill. 20 - Série T, série de trente peintures sur papier Mengeï (39,5 x 54,5 cm), vitrine (12 m x 0,60 m x 1m). Coll. du Fonds National d’Art Contemporain. © Kees Visser. Ill. 14 - K 35, extrait du catalogue raisonné, 2003, peinture et crayon sur papier millimétré, (détail du cat. rais. page K1 2003) H13 X L10 cm, coll. de l’artiste. © Kees Visser.

Ill. 16 - Maquette du Wall painting de Beeckesteijn, 2001, peinture sur papier, L99 X H68, courtesy Objet de production, Paris. © Kees Visser.

Ill. 21 - Vue de l'exposition à l’Hôtel de Missa, Objet de production, septembre 2007. Acrylique sur Saunders Waterford 300 g, contrecollé sur dibond, 149 x 270 cm. Coll. FRAC Bretagne.(c) Kees Visser.

Ill. 22 - Vue de l'exposition à l’Hôtel de Missa, Objet de production, septembre 2007. Série Q, Acrylique sur papier Saunders Waterford (300 g), contrecollé sur dibond, 149 x 270 cm. Coll. FRAC Bretagne. © André Morin.