Tour de France/Florida: Contemporary Artists from France in Florida's Private Collections

CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS FROM FRANCE IN FLORIDA’S PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

VIVE LA FRANCE DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

The long fascination with French Art in the United States began over one hundred years ago when Paris dominated the avant-garde and the fledgling American art scene looked across the sea for its inspiration (and to catch up). This cross-ocean relationship continues to the present day, in an art world that is small, global, and without the boundaries and barriers of distance, politics, cultural differences and language.

This exhibition is just a glimpse into that global picture and brings together a number of interesting perspectives as it showcases artists of international renown, artists not well recognized in Florida, outside of the circle of well-versed collectors and young emerging artists, all with a French connection. There are artists who work via different approaches: painting, sculpture, books and works on paper, photography, and assemblages that combine materials in unique ways. The use of mundane objects and traditional processes used in accumulative ways is a constant throughout the exhibition. The collectors first became familiar with their works in a number of ways: museum exhibitions, travel to France, art fairs, auctions and galleries. Once the curator, Martine Buissart, decided to present this unique opportunity to view French Art in Miami, she found the task to be quite revealing. There were many more important French artists in Florida collections than she first imagined and with each visit, more works became available. She paid particular attention to artists who live or have lived in Florida, and realized that such an exhibition also offered valuable insight into the collecting process of the esteemed group of collectors participating, as we view a particular aspect of their acquisitions, works from France, and how, why and what they represent to their personal buying strategies. Each work has a story for the collector, another reason an exhibition from private collections is different from a curated museum show based on a singular theme or artist. These works belong to private individuals and were chosen for their own reasons, not because of a museum’s acquisition or exhibition process.

This Tour de France continues the voyage across the Atlantic into Florida with a new perspective of the future.

Carol Damian Director and Chief Curator The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum Florida International University, Miami

Left to right: Johan Creten, Female Torso, 2002, Glazed stoneware, multi-firings, Collection of Elaine Baker Gallery; Ben Vautier, Musee de Ben, 1972, Artist case with multiple objects, The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry; ORLAN, Refiguration, Selfhybridization Pre-Columbian Series, N°2, AP 1/1, 1998, Cibachrome, Collection of Aliénor and Daphné Dufetel, Courtesy of Gallery Hélène Lamarque, Miami

CROSSED PERSPECTIVES CURATOR’S STATEMENT

As a French curator living in the United States, I viewed French contemporary art from a different perspective. The research was fascinating, full of unexpected developments, and extremely rich. The artists and their galleries stood as our first informers. At the same time, we asked contemporary art professionals for their input. That’s how the concept of the exhibition “Tour de France / Florida” was formed.

Except for French artists having lived or living in Florida, we were uncertain about the actual representation of the French art scene when we started to work on the project. In the end, a broad representation of not only the big names of internationally acclaimed artists appears, but also a younger generation of emerging artists.

Such an exhibition cannot pretend to be comprehensive. Because of their size or fragile condition, some important works by Gilles Barbier, Jean Marc Bustamante, Claire Fontaine, Loris Gréaud, Jean Michel Othoniel, Bernar Venet, could not be exhibited at the Frost Museum.

Our intention has been to promote artists, through choices that speak to artistic issues as much as to the spirit that led to their acquisition.

With a mix of paintings, pictures and installations, each collection has a specific tone. There is sometimes a concern to ingrain the collection in contemporary art history, while other times the priority is given to emerging practices. Overall some tendencies come out: the position of “classical” media, painting and sculpture, and the relation to writing.

The exhibition, bringing together about thirty artistic perspectives, is structured around artists showing groups of works (Claude Viallat and Hervé Télémaque) or recognized artworks (Christian Boltanski), but we also emphasize pieces that were never or rarely shown before.

The outcome of this adventure is the result of all these crossed perspectives. The exhibition was also made possible thanks to the generosity of the collectors who positively answered our proposition, and for the invitation by the Frost Museum. I am most appreciative to all.

Martine Buissart Curator

Left to right: Sophie Calle, Exquisite Pain Day (Day 7), 2000, Embroidery text panels and photo panels, 75½ x 52½ inches, Collection of Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz; Image of the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry; Hervé Télémaque, L’aveu, (La chambre noire No. 9), 1991, Assemblage, Collection of Claude Auguste and Farah L. Douyon

ARTISTS EXHIBITED

Mathieu K. Abonnenc Denise A. Aubertin Christian Boltanski Sophie Calle Robert Combas Johan Creten Hervé Di Rosa Jacques Halbert Joël Hubaut

Jean-Pierre Khazem Alain Kirili Dominique Labauvie Bertrand Lavier Pierre Mabille Annette Messager Jean-Pierre Nadeau ORLAN Gyan Panchal

Philippe Perrot Florian and Michaël Quistrebert Jean-Pierre Raynaud Geneviève Seille Hervé Télémaque Tatiana Trouvé Ben Vautier Bernar Venet Claude Viallat

BOOKS IN THE EXHIBITION

Special thank you to The Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. On view in this exhibition are 17 books from the Lettrism movement.

Left to right: Hervé Di Rosa, Atelier Olivier Haligon, 2006, Acrylic and Polyurethane on canvas, Olivier Haligon Collection; Claude Viallat, Untitled, 2001, Acrylic on canvas, Collection of Elizabeth Lyman

Smithsonian Institution Affiliations Program

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum

Florida International University 10975 SW 17th St. | Miami, FL 33199 t: 305.348.2890 | f: 305.348.2762 | e: artinfo@fiu.edu | w: thefrost.fiu.edu Museum Hours: Tues-Sat: 10am-5pm / Sun: 12pm-5pm / Mon: Closed

The Frost Art Museum receives ongoing support from the Steven and Dorothea Green Endowment; the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor and the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners; the State of Florida Department of State, the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts; The Miami Herald; Target; and the Members & Friends of The Frost Art Museum.

This exhibition received support from: France Florida Foundation for the Arts

Cover: Christian Boltanski, Untitled (Reserve), 1989, Clothes, black and white photographs and lights, Rubell Family Collection, Miami