20 Years with
Pierre Marie Brisson at Franklin Bowles Galleries
20 Years with
Pierre Marie Brisson at Franklin Bowles Galleries
S A N F R A NC I S C O •
N E W YOR K
O
One of the great satisfactions of working in the art world is the opportunity it gives me to discover promising young artists, nurture their talent over the years, and watch it grow into a mature artistic vision that is acknowledged around the globe. Such has been my experience with Pierre Marie Brisson. This is why it is such a pleasure for me to celebrate the galleries’ twenty-year association with this extraordinary artist with all who admire and collect his work. Brisson’s art is a masterful synthesis of opposing elements: human figures enveloped by suggestive abstract forms; evocative, contemporary colors counter-balanced by rough, torn surfaces that seem to be weathered by centuries of time; modern rhythms blended with imagery that stretches all the way back to the prehistoric cave paintings of Lascaux. This is the alchemy Pierre Marie conjures for us, and which resonates so forcefully with art lovers around the world. Brisson’s art does not merely present itself for our viewing pleasure — it compels us to be engaged; to enter the artist’s world of past and present; to be a participant rather than just an observer. I consider this 20th anniversary retrospective exhibition of masterworks by Pierre Marie Brisson, to be a true milestone, appropriate for celebration. We celebrate that rare and special magic that occurs only occasionally, when artist and dealer and collector join in a common experience — bringing a fresh yet lasting vision to the world of art.
FRANKLIN BOWLES
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THE CONTINUITY OF CONFIDENCE
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. — Sir Francis Bacon, “Of Beauty,” Essays (1625)
I want my paintings to be inaccurate and anomalous in such a way that they become lies, if you like, but lies that are more truthful than the literal truth. — Vincent Van Gogh, Letters
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The artistic journey of Pierre Marie Brisson started out with an abundance of raw talent and a stubborn sense of determination thirty-two years ago. In mounting his first exhibition, at his own expense, in his hometown of Orléans, Brisson announced to himself and the world that his was to be a creative life of action rather than a patient, passive career waiting for recognition that might never come. It is not enough to make a wine; you must also have others willing to eagerly drink it. Brisson, like many creative artists, was blessed in his early years by having his art intoxicate the minds of experienced and thoughtful collectors and dealers who saw great promise in his present and future. Brisson’s early work displayed vibrant surface gesture and form that traced its roots back to the stained glass fragmentation of Georges Rouault, the playful imagery of Paul Klee, and the automatism of Pierre Courtin, Bram Van Velde, and the Cobra group that included Asger Jorn, Karel Appel, and Pierre Alechinsky. This is where his art began but not where it was to evolve to in his maturity. It is clear that Pierre Marie Brisson is a representational artist. Like Picasso and Miró before him, Brisson’s imagery can stray far afield, often bordering on abstraction. However, images of reality, even shattered shards of experience, are always present in his work. Brisson spoke of this: A form always comes from something. You can never deny the existence of figurative art. That is something very important because it is very difficult to think abstractly without looking at the angle of a house, a landscape, the sea, a desert. It’s important. The form . . . I have worked on human figures. They remain human figures while being expressed in the simplest way possible, with the richest interpretation of movement. But sometimes these human figures become something else, allowing everyone to make his own interpretation. It is clear that the human form is the dominating and most reoccurring subject in his art. Brisson further elaborated:
In my paintings the most important [element] is the human figure or what remains of the figure because it can become something else. The starting point is the human being. It recurs all [of the] time and from this starting point, it becomes signs, it becomes something else. It can be blended with other signs or singled out. It can be just a line, but it always remains a human being.
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Someone once said that art is not a form of communication but a vehicle for sharing experience between artist and viewer. The art of Pierre Marie Brisson fits this description. It is rich with layers of artistic expression capable of unlocking repressed or forgotten levels of memory in individuals. Brisson combines various elements of life, which we have all observed at different times and places. Yet, except through his art, never before have they been experienced at a single time and place. These elements may include the rough surface of an ancient wall, the craquelure of old paint, the decorative pattern of wallpaper and woven fabric, and the minimal shorthand figuration done either through the assurance of artistic sophistication or the inherent practice of archaic beliefs. Brisson’s art is very chic and new, yet timeworn and antique. It is avant-garde and ingenious, yet linked visually and spiritually to primitive sensibilities. Finally, it is skillfully crafted with the best materials, yet part of its success rests with the sense that his works are fashioned from the ugly, discarded fragments of our disposable civilization, renewed and revitalized by the hand of the artist. Pierre Marie Brisson creates an art that invites — no, demands — repeated viewing over time. His paintings, drawings, and prints, like the best of poetry, cinema, and fine art, ask more questions than they answer. Art is continuity: it goes forward yet ever looks backward. Pierre Marie Brisson is not one to obscure his sources of inspiration. His artistic roots are buried deep in the soil of his native France, reaching back to prehistory, the mystical renderings on the cave wall of Lascaux. At the time of these drawings, art was truly a form of magic. To paint on a cave wall a bison being brought down by the tribe was to predict and thus assure the success of a future hunt. Brisson reintroduces the primeval in his work. The rough, even coarse treatments of his subject matter are not a result of Brisson’s lack of skill but instead a sign of his confidence of execution. He is like a good jazz musician who all too well knows the melody but fashions his own sound through idiosyncratic riffs and measured atonality. Brisson slips comprehensible though often cropped or obscured images in and out of our recognition. He does this while always maintaining the sense of a unified composition. The resulting surfaces and subjects captivate and recall Satayana’s dictum that sensations are rapid dreams. Lascaux wall painting Brisson’s mature style can be linked to French art in the post-war years. In the 1940s and early ’50s, Jacques Villegle and Raymond Hains transformed the look of layers of torn and discarded posters from the streets of Paris into a rough but carefully controlled form of collage. This transformation of refuse into fine art is linked to the earlier Dada movement, but its overall sense of line (created through tearing) and color made it a European version of Abstract Expressionism. Brisson’s works exhibit similar characteristics. Jean Dubuffet, in his dark, thickly impastoed paintings of the 1940s and ’50s, is an even stronger link to the spirit that Brisson displays in his work. Dubuffet believed in art but not in beauty. He wanted his works to challenge rather than seduce. Dubuffet wrote:
I believe beauty is nowhere. I consider the usual notion of beauty to be completely false — I refuse absolutely to assent to this idea, that there are ugly persons and ugly objects. This idea is stifling and revolting to me. I think the Greeks are the ones who were first to purport this invention — that certain objects are more beautiful than others. The so-called savage peoples do not believe in that conception at all and they do not understand when you speak to them of beauty…. It is strange that for centuries and centuries, and now more than ever, the men of the Occident dispute which things are beautiful and which are ugly. All are certain that beauty exists without doubt, but one cannot find two who agree about the objects which are so endowed. And from one century to the next it changes. In each century Occidental culture declares beautiful what it declared ugly in the preceding one.
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I am certain that if he were alive, Jean Dubuffet would have embraced and encouraged the art of Pierre Marie Brisson. He would have recognized that the same people who failed to appreciate the qualities of his own art would be equally baffled by those of Brisson. It is the sense that when Brisson finishes a painting, it is brand new yet at the same time contains the patina of wear and the appearance of something that has existed for ages. For those who understand his art, the distressed surface of Brisson’s works is the alchemy that makes them a success; what would appear ugly in another artist’s work is exactly what makes Brisson’s art memorable.
If anything ever does work in my case it works from that moment when consciously I didn’t know what I was doing . . . It’s really a question in my case of being able to catch the fact at its most living point. — Francis Bacon, 1968
To better understand his art, it is informative to have Brisson explain his working method:
Usually, I start with some small sketches. Then I do several small paintings on paper, then I go to the work itself. When I have discovered through these various steps what I want to do, the final work must be executed very quickly. It’s as if I memorized a piece of music. You memorize your page and when you have to perform it you must not make any mistakes. I must create the work very fast on the large canvas in order to give it life. And the larger the canvas, the more life it must have. Each time you must feel something while working with the medium. It’s not light. You must scratch it; you must be a little violent and then give sureness to the line.
By the beginning of the 1990s, Brisson was using the method of radically building up the surfaces of his works to emphasize tangible tactility. The artist explained the originality of this technique:
There is always earth, stone, the actual stuff of the picture. It is always present. And it’s important because it brings you back to your roots. It’s a mixture of what I call “une petite cuisine.” That is to say a mixture of all kinds of ve ry durable materials . . . many kinds of glues and sand called silicium. It is used to make glass and it mixes very well with glue to give this sandy look of stone and after all that I use oil paints. I start by creating the tex t u re on canva s ; it is the foundation, afterward s, I cre at e the accident, in other words, I give relief to this texture by adding some cuts. The success of this technique is seen in such series as Botanique I-IV (1994), Revelation I-III, V (1995) and Fragment I-IV (1995), where Brisson orchestrates the violence of his working method into a balanced harmony of form, color, and texture.
Revelation I-III, V, 1995
An early painting, Portrait (1978), is a work that has a dark raw intensity about it. Only the surface energy of linear strokes reminds one of where Brisson’s work would develop in the coming years. In the early 1980s, Brisson developed a new way of creating his surface through subtraction rather than addition that was to become a trademark of his style. In a painting such as Portrait de Profil (1981) t h e re is a sense of scrubbing down the surface to cre ate a beautifully timeworn background for his elegantly abstracted profile of a head.
Recently, I encountered the famous photograph, Liberia (1931), by Martin Munkacsi. I had known the image for years without paying much attention to it. But now as I stared at it I was wondering why it had suddenly attracted my attention . . . and then I realized, to my surprise, that what it had triggered in my subconscious was linked to the imagery of Pierre Marie Brisson’s lyrical depiction of humans. Munkacsi’s children, with arms and legs in motion, darting into the waves, were like Brisson’s elongated forms in many works including L’enculée (1995) and Suspension (1995).
Brisson displayed his subtle playfulness in Africa (1986), where the title sends one searching for the clue to the work’s meaning. It is only after staring at the abstraction of the red form that the clear outline of a nude African female appears effortlessly within that block of color. His is an art that demands thoughtful contemplation. Portrait, 1978 Martin Munkacsi, Liberia, 1931
Suspension, 1995
Portrait de Profil, 1981
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Africa, 1986
L’enculée, 1995
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One cannot help but admire the audaciousness of Pierre Marie Brisson in the way he challenges his subject matter. In Attitude (2002), the reality of a standing figure is evident, but the lack of arms and the cropping at the shoulders create a form that also functions as segments of black, red, and yellow that complement the background traces of blue and white. Color is an important element in Brisson’s art but one that the artist employs with a judicious restraint, as he explained:
It’s important without appearing to be so. It must be accidental. It must appear on a surface as though it had been created by time. Take a young Attitude, 2002 tree, for example. Little by little its bark grows, and creates various tones. Then lichen appears, and gives the tree a different aspect. With time it will become a beautiful tree. A young tree is perhaps less interesting. Color is a little like that. You mustn’t put color on a canvas just to put color; you must put color only when it is necessary.
Anyone can have talent when he is five-and-twenty; it is more difficult to have talent when you are fifty. — Edgar Degas
This assured subtlety of application is evident in works such as Parcelle II (2006), where the green of the stems is restrained in comparison to the blue of the buds whose tone delicately dominates the work’s surface. No, your eyes are not deceiving you in the recent painting Projection V (2007). Yes, Brisson has elegantly referenced the figure of Adam from Michelangelo’s fresco for the Sistine Chapel in the outstretched arm of his model. Brisson’s art lives with a relaxed confidence that easily takes inspiration from the past as he constantly pushes his art ever forward.
Parcelle II, 2006
Loyalty is spelled with a small “l” in the world of contemporary art today. Artists whose fledgling careers had been nurtured and expanded by dealers for years are precipitously wooed away by more moneyed and powerful galleries when success begins to arrive, often with not so much as a “thank you” as they depart. In turn, dealers who are always on the lookout for the next art-world star are justifiably accused of losing confidence in promising artists if their work does not attract immediate public recognition and sustained sales. The art world, whose product is beauty and intellect, is often conducted in an atmosphere of overstatement and distrust. One hundred years ago, Edgar Degas could have been commenting on the present situation when he said that there are certain types of success that are indistinguishable from panic. It is, therefore, important to recognize and celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Pierre Marie Brisson with Franklin Bowles Galleries. Theirs has been an association of admirable mutual confidence and trust over the years. For Pierre Marie, it was to devote himself to his art with creativity, vigor, and enterprise; and for Frank, to promote and present Pierre Marie’s art with diligence and dignity. Two decades in the history of art is but a moment, but in the life of an artist, it represents a large portion of his or her career. The delight of observing an artist like Pierre Marie Brisson in mid-career is to savor, as we do now, that which he has created and to eagerly anticipate what is to come.
(Above) Michelangelo, Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ROBERT FLYNN JOHNSON Curator in Charge Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
Projection V, 2007
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ECRITURE, 1979 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 9" x 6"
PORTRAIT, 1978 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 13" x 21"
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ECRITURE BOTONIQUE, 1980 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 19.5" x 12"
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PERSONNAGE, 1981 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 14" x 11"
L'IDIOT, 1982 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 13" x 6.5"
PORTRAIT DE PROFIL, 1981 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 29" x 23"
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TĂŠTE, 1983 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 30" x 11"
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ARCHITECTURE SUR ROULETTE, 1984 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 31.5" x 39"
TRIO, 1984 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 36" x 28"
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SEINE D'INTERIEUR, 1984 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 45 x 35
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AU PIED DE L'ECHELLE, 1987 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 35" x 46"
ANIMALITﾃ右, 1984 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 45" x 35"
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LES AMIES, 1988 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper; 22" x 14"
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COUPLE, 1988 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 22" x 14"
L'ARÉNE, 1988 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 31.5" x 39"
COLLAGE, 1989 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 21" x 17"
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FEMME OBSCURE, 1988 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 45" x 35"
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FLORILÉGE I, 1991 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 36" x 23"
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L’OR DU TEMPS I, 1992 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 79" x 79"
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I
I
II
III
II PLANTE, 1992 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 22" x 27"
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LES OISEAU, 1993 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 18" x 22"
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I
II
III
IV
BOTANIQUE, 1994 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on hand-made paper 22" x 18"
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SUSPENSION, 1995 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 29" x 36"
L'ENCULEE, 1995 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 30" x 36"
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II
I
III
V
REVELATION, 1995 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 13" x 9.5"
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JARDIN AUX AMPHORES, 1995 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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LE GRAND MUSICIEN, 1995 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 28" x 36"
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FUGUE, 1996 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 51.5" x 51.5"
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LE MOT LE PLUS DOUX, 1997 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 19.5" x 19.5"
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LES SENTEURS DES ROSES, 1998 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 59" x 59"
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E'TOILE (triptych), 1999 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 78" x 36" x 3"
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2000 – 20007
ETUDE FLORALE IV, 2002 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 40" x 29"
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LA PIED ET LA FLEUR,2002 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 48" x 48"
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FEMME D’IVOIRE I, 2003 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 77" x 36"
JOUR DE FETE,2003 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 29" x 36"
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FEMME ASSIS, 2004 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 59" x 59"
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COMPLICES, 2004 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 59" x 59"
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LE CHENE ROUGE, 2005 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 117" x 78"
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PIMENTS ROUGE, 2005 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 59" x 59"
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JARDIN SECRET III, 2006 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 59" x 59"
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TRACE FEMININE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 78" x 78"
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SÉQUANCE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 58.5" x 58.5"
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LA CHAMBRE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 78" x 78"
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II
III L’ECHANGE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 63" x 51"
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ESQUISSE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 45" x 35"
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LA RENCONTRE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 58.5" x 58.5"
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LA DISCRETE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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ACTION, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 63" x 51"
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REFLEXTION, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 51" x 37"
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L’AMI AMÈRICAIN II, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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L’AMI AMÈRICAIN III, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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L’AMI AMÈRICAIN IV, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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L’AMI AMÈRICAIN V, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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L’AMI AMÈRICAIN VI, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 63" x 51"
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LES BELLES HEURE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 39" x 39"
DENIARE LE MUR, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 35" x 56.5"
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LA CHAMBRE OUE ETRANGE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 35" x 45"
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RÈVE D’AUGE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
VUE DU DOS, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 39" x 39"
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ESSAI, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 35" x 45"
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FENETRE III, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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L’ÉTRANGE, 2007 Acrylic, glue, silica, paper collage on canvas 47" x 47"
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PIERRE-MARIE BRISSON CURRICULUM VITAE
ARTIST INFORMAT I O N Born in June, 1955 in Orléans, France Currently lives and works in the South of France.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2006 2005
2004
2003
2002
2001 2000
1999
1998
Franklin Bowles Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Palm Beach Contemporary Art Fair, Palm Beach, Florida, USA Palm Springs Art Expo, Palm Springs, FL, USA Timothy Yarger Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Musee d’art et d’histoire de Cognac, Cognac, France Collégiale Saint-Pierre-le-Puellier, Orléans, France Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun, France Galerie Fabrice Galvani, Toulouse France Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA Musée Faure, Aix Les Bains, France Orangerie du Sénat, Paris, France Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chateau de Foucaud, Gaillac, France Art-Paris (Galerie Frédéric Storme) Lille, France Carré Sainte Anne, Montpelier, France Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Galerie Ducastel, Avignon, France Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Rivington Gallery, London, England Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Musée de Gelsenkirchen, Gelsenkirchen, Germany Galerie Arte, Dakkar, Sénégal Fondation Carcan, Carcan, Belgium Chateau de Lussan, Lussan, France Stadtisches Museum, Gelsenkirchen, Germany Galerie Thierry Spira, Paris, France Galerie Couleurs du temps, Gèneve, Switzerland Galerie Voigt, Nüremberg, Germany Galerie Kühn, Berlin, Germany
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1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
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Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Timothy Yarger Fine Art,Los Angeles, CA, USA SAGA (Galerie Thierry Spira), Paris, France Aibotheque, Miramas, France Galerie Schweitzer, Luxembourg, Luxembourg Galerie Schweitzer, Luxembourg, Luxembourg Bowles Yarger Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, NY, USA Galerie Thierry Spira, Paris, France Galerie Couleurs du Temps, Geneve, Switzerland Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Musee Faure, Aix les Bains, France Galerie Raphael , Frankfort, Germany Galerie Sundermann, Wurzburg, Germany Salon International d’Art Contemporain, Strasbourg, France Salon de Mars, Paris, France Chapelle des Capucins, Aigues-Mortes, France Galerie La Cour des Arts, Belfort, France Bowles Yarger Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA Franklin Bowles Gallery , New York, NY, USA Galerie Thierry Spira, Paris, France Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, New York, NY, USA Bowles/Sorokko/Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills, CA, USA Galerie Thierry Spira, Paris, France Galerie Raphael, Frankfurt, Germany Galerie Lacan, Strasbourg, France International Biennial of Graphic Art, Ljubjana, Slovenia Galerie Horizon, Marseille, France Galerie Lucette Herzog, Paris, France SIAC: Galerie Thierry Spira, Strasbourg, France Galerie die Welle, Iserlohn, Germany Galerie Petra Pfeiffer, Würzburg, Germany Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, New York, NY, USA Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Galerie Thierry Spira, Paris, France SAGA, Grand Palais, Paris, France Raphael Gallery, Frankfurt, Germany International d’Art, Düsseldorf, Germany Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Germany Galerie Médicis, Besançon, France Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, New York, NY, USA Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, Beverly Hills, CA, USA Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Galerie de Hesdin: (group exhibition), Paris, France Galerie Manent Pérouse, Aubenas, France ART/LA: William Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA SAGA Grand Palais Atelier Pasnic, Galerie Lucette Herzog, Paris, France Hyatt Hotel, Tokyo, Japan British International Hotel, Kyoto, Japan
1992
1991
1990
Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, New York, NY, USA Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, Beverly Hills, CA, USA Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Platform, Beirut, Lebanon Galerie Lucette Herzog, Paris, France ART/LA: William Turner Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA William Turner Gallery, Venice, CA, USA Chicago International Art Fair: Turner/Thompson Galleries, Chicago, CA, USA Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, San Francisco, CA, USA Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, Beverly Hills, CA, USA Galerie de Hesdin, Paris, France Galerie de Menthon, Paris, France Galerie Domus, Antibes, France SAGA: Grand Palais Galerie Lucette Herzog, Paris, France Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Opera de Rouen (The Year of Mozart), Rouen, France Vision Nouvelle Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, Beverly Hills, CA, USA Galerie Lucette Herzog, Paris, France Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, Canada Exhibition tour, CITY, Japan
PUBLIC and PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA Jewish Museum, New York, NY, USA George Pages Museum, Los Angeles, CA, USA Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Belfort, France Musée Faure, Aix les Bains, France Städtisches Museum, Gelsenkirchen, Germany Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco: Achenbach Foundation, San Francisco, CA, USA Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA Carré Noir, Paris, France Lecoanet Hemant haute couture, Paris, France Group Cartier, Paris, France Société générale, Paris, France Zurich Assurances, Paris, France Medical Center, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA The private collection of Mr. Pier Luigi Loro Piana, Milan, Italy Mrs. Amalia Fortabat, Buenos Aires, Argentina
COMMISSIONS 2003 2002 2001 1999
Edition of posters and cards, Nouvelles Images. Cover illustrations, éditions Actes Sud. Series of prints for the Hotel Royal Riviera, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Private exhibition, Microsoft Xbox Lounge, Paris Artwork for the Prix d’Amérique poster. Illustrations of greeting cards for Unesco publications.
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1998
Cover illustrations for a collection of Arab poetry, éditions Sindbad/Actes Sud. Poster for the festival Les Nuits d’Encens, Aigues-Mortes. Two lithographs for the Novotel-Accor collection. Poster for a scientific program, Leksell Gamma Knife Society. CD cover: Hekma by Khalil Chahine. Limited edition stamp (acquisition of the Post Office Museum, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris). Master Class Le Chemin des gestes, University of San Francisco. Residential fresco, San Francisco. Artistic advisor for Pierre Sullice’s feature film les Bois tranparents. Fresco, the Lecoanet Hemant showroom, Paris. CD cover: The Man From Barcelona, Tete Montoliu Trio, Japan.
1997 1994
1993 1991
FILMS Pierre Marie Brisson, Dir. Bertrand Lefebvre. Pile Productions, 2003. Les Chemin des gestes. Master Class. University of San Francisco, 1994. Le Procédé Goetz, Dir. Jean Real with Coignard, Clavé, Papart, Brisson. 1987. Pierre Marie Brisson, Dir. Jean Real. 1985
P U B L I C AT I O N S 1998 1992 1984 1981 1980
Supplément, three etchings with an unpublished text by Roland Barthes Etat d’Ame, three etchings with an accompanying poem by the artist, Bowles/Sorokko Galleries, San Francisco. Un jour inhabitué, four etchings with unpublished poems by Jean-Jacques Scherrer, Lucette Herzog Gallery. Toute présence tue, two etchings with an unpublished poem by Jean-Jacques Scherrer. Le Rien du dit, two etchings with an original poem by Jean-Jacques Scherrer.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY 2003 2002 2001
2000
1999 1998
1997 1995 1991 1990 1988 1987
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Les Jeux séculaires, texts by Jean Rouaud, Robert Flynn Johnson, Somogy éditions d’art, Paris, in collaboration with Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York. Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Robert Flynn Johnson, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Bevely Hills. Paintings for the Ancestors, text by Michael Miller, Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, San Francisco. Les Corps infinis, series of 12 erotic paintings on paper with a text by Jean Rouaud, éditions Actes Sud. Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Marc Lepape, Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills. Traces, text by Jean Rouaud, Somogy éditions d’art, Paris, France, in collaboration with Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York. Overthere, poetry by Marion Moulin, Rivington Gallery, London. Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Robert Flynn Johnson, Franklin Bowles Galleries, New York, San Francisco. Pierre Marie Brisson, interview by Michel Archimbaud, Yarger Arts Gallery, Beverly Hills. Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Alexander Schwartz, Städtusches Museum Gelsenkirchen. Pierre Marie Brisson – Gravures 1998, catalogue of engravings, éditions Thierry Spira, Paris. Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Marc Lepape, Cahiers de la Galerie de prêt, Médiathèque intercommunale, Miramas, Fos-sur-Mer Pierre Marie Brisson, texts by Michel Butor, Michel Archimbaud, Fabrice Hergott, catalogue Musée Faure, Aix-les-Bains, éditions Michel Archimbaud. La Trace Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Gerard Caron in Oeuvres 1994-5, éditions Garnier-Nocera Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Martine Arnault in Cimaise, nº 214. Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Fabrice Hergott, éditions Séguier. Pierre Marie Brisson, text by Patrick-Gilles Persin in Cimaise, nº 192. Brisson, text by Jean Audigier, éditions Bruno Roulland.
INDEX (ADD PG. #S)
Portrait Ecriture Ecriture Botonique Personnage Portrait de Profil L'idiot Tête Architecture sur Roulette Seine d'Interieur Animalitée Trio Au Pied de l'Echelle Les Amies Couple Femme Obscure L'aréne Collage Florilége I L'or du temps I Plante I Plante II Plante III Les Oiseau I Les Oiseau II Botanique I Botanique II Botanique III Botanique IV Suspension L'enculee Revelation I Revelation II Revelation III Revelation V Jardin aux amphores Le Grand Musicien Fugue
Le mot le plus doux Les Senteurs des Roses E'toile (triptych) Etude Florale IV La pied et la fleur Jour de fete Femme d'ivoire I Femme Assis Complices Le Chene Rouge Piments rouge Le chêne rouge Jardin Secret III Trace Feminine Séquance La Chambre L'echange Esquisse II Esquisse III La Rencontre La Discrete Action Reflextion L'ami Amèricain II L'ami Amèricain III L'ami Amèricain IV L'ami Amèricain V L'ami Amèricain VI Les Belles Heure Deniare le Mur La chambre oue etrange Rève d'auge Vue du dos Essai Fenetre III L'étrange
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FALL 2007 PROJECT MANAGERS: Stacy Bellis Gabriela Suazo CATALOGUE DESIGNER: Susan Tsuchiya PHOTOGRAPHY: Jean Audigier, PhD Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (?)
20 Years with
Pierre Marie Brisson at Franklin Bowles Galleries