Dare to visit art galleries
About the exhibitions to be seen in Parisian art galleries at the turn of 2022 and 2023.
What better way to keep abreast of what's for sale than to visit art galleries in Paris? The journalists of L'Oeil magazine made their rounds for the December issue. Because we should not forget that museums and contemporary art centres are not the only places where you can gorge yourself on everything that is born and lives on the art market today. The favourite places for art lovers and collectors are, of course, art galleries, whose walls are not only adorned with labels next to the works of art, but also with the price of the paintings for sale, the sculptures for sale... even if it is obviously not forbidden to just come and contemplate them!
If some very fine exhibitions in Parisian galleries are unfortunately coming to an end these days, such as the one that the Lahumière art gallery, a specialist in geometric abstract art, devoted to Auguste Herbin (1882-1960), whose paintings and preparatory drawings were for sale between €9,000 and €350,000, The Perrotin gallery also offered thirty or so paintings and graphic works by Gérard Schneider (1896-1986) estimated at between €7,000 and €300,000, whose price is expected to rise sharply in the near future, and the Laurentin art gallery paid tribute to the French sculptor of Hungarian origin, Etienne Hajdu (1907-1996). Following the example of the one we have mentioned on this site, dedicated to Vincent Bioulès and called "Vincent Bioulès. Mes lieux de mémoire". The painter born in Montpellier in 1938, a major figure in the Supports/Surfaces group but who has always taken care to maintain his creative freedom, is presenting some twenty unpublished oil paintings until 25 February at the La Forest Divonne art gallery. Works of art for sale at prices ranging from €5,000 to €45,000.
On the occasion of the opening by the Françoise Livinec art gallery of a new space dedicated to modern art, a few street numbers apart in the rue Penthièvre in the 8th arrondissement, Marie Vassilieff (1884-1957) is being honoured until 18 February. A key figure in the Montparnasse district at the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian painter and sculptor was one of the major artists of the avant-garde period. This does not prevent her from being rare. Some forty works are exhibited here under the title "Marie Vassilieff. La cigale des steppes". This artist, who received a solid classical training in painting at the Russian Academy of Fine Arts before arriving in the French capital on a scholarship, found material for her work in the entourage of the Ecole de Paris, without ever losing her singularity or her whimsical character. Two of his major Cubist paintings from the 1910s are for sale here at €900,000, but the gallery also offers drawings at €1,500.
A visit to the Dina Vierny art gallery in the 6th arrondissement is also not to be missed. Until 4 February, it is an excellent opportunity to delve into the work of the primitives, who were described as modern by the German collector and art dealer, art historian and writer Wilhelm Uhde (1874-1947). Among the most famous of these self-taught so-called naive painters, who worked completely on the fringes of the avant-garde at the time, whose works of art for sale are brought together in the exhibition entitled "Bleu-rouge-jaune, la palette des primitifs modernes": André Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Séraphine Louis, Louis Vivin and of course the man who was considered to be the father of them all, Henri Rousseau, nicknamed the Douanier Rousseau. Some twenty of their works of art can be seen, some of which have never before been shown to the public! So much so that a catalogue has even been published for the occasion. "Curated by art historian and specialist in naive art Marion Alluchon, the exhibition offers a new look at the pictorial aspect of these artists' work," says Marie Poatrd for L'Oeil.
At the Karsten Greve art gallery, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, sculpture is on sale with the 24th solo exhibition of the sculptor John Chamberlain (1927-2011), on view until 7 January. The art gallery has represented the American artist since the early 1970s. For the occasion, it has put together a retrospective of 25 pieces, including sculptures, monotypes and photographs, dating from 1967 to 2007. An "exhibition of museum quality" as Vincent Delaury explains in L'Oeil. "This collection reveals both "baroque" sculptures, with crumpled car bodies and metallic flowers in splendid colours, and two-dimensional productions whose connections and distortions replay his art of sculpture. But beware, prices start at €26,000 for the photographs.
If the art gallery Kaléidoscope, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, has officially closed on December 17 the first part of the cycle it decided to devote to the New Figuration, keep your eyes open in spite of everything, because it should reopen at the beginning of 2023 in the new space that will be set up in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district by this gallery, which was created in 2019 in order to defend the artists who have left their mark on the second half of the 20th century as well as those who are still around today. It should therefore be possible to quickly find works of art for sale by the ten artists selected to illustrate the great proliferation of figurative painting on the Parisian scene during the period 1957-1965, then 1977, when Paris was said to have been defeated by New York: Eduardo Arroyo, John Christoforou, Jacques Grinberg, Maria Lassnig, Michel Macréau, Maryan, Marcel Pouget, Paul Rebeyrolle, Antonio Recalcati and Fernand Teyssier.
Finally, we will also be interested in the 40th anniversary of the Dumonteil gallery, specialised in modern and contemporary art, created by Pierre Dumonteil and his wife Dothi in Paris in 1982, notably around the themes of the animal figure and nature, which has also since moved to Shanghai. Today, under the leadership of Dothi and Pierre's son, Dorian Dumonteil, who has been working for the family gallery since 2012 and officially took over the reins in 2021, the company has two Parisian spaces: one at 38, rue de l'Université, a historic address renamed Dumonteil Design because it is now specialised in the limited edition contemporary design branch, and the other at 8, rue d'Aboukir, named Dumonteil Contemporary, an address devoted more specifically to contemporary art. What will never change is that the Dumonteil Gallery continues to expand its influence by engaging in a variety of cultural sectors beyond the mere commercial ambition of selling art, including lending works to museum exhibitions and contributing to leading publications.