The full and the untied of Nicolas Sanhes
About the four exhibitions devoted in 2023 to the French sculptor Nicolas Sanhes.
He is one of those who know how to put all the weight of the technique at the service of the sensitivity of the work of art. A sculptor of spaces, considered to be one of the most talented artists of his generation, the Frenchman Nicolas Sanhes is becoming increasingly important in the contemporary art world... and in the world at large. During your travels in France, you will no doubt have noticed the fullness and smoothness of his sculptural works of art, which have been sold to the towns of Rodez, La Verrière, Montélimar, Trappes, Valenciennes or Strasbourg, following public commissions since 1997. The impressive work of this contemporary artist delimiting voids, planes and spaces in constant evolution according to the viewer's point of view could not fail to attract the attention of those whose objective is to make the public space a true open-air art gallery, accessible to the greatest number.
This February's Connaissance des arts magazine devotes some beautiful illustrated pages to this contemporary artist on the occasion of his rich current events in 2023. No less than four exhibitions are on display, in addition to a book that has just been published by Archibooks: "Nicolas Sahnes, et je vois le vide qui se soude de formes colorées", at the Galerie d'art R in Grande-Synthe (59) can be seen until 23 February; "Nicolas Sahnes, sculptures" will be held at the Bonisson Art Center in Rognes (13) from May to September; an exhibition will then be held at the Podgorny Robinson art gallery in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (06) from 15 June to 15 July; and finally an exhibition will be devoted to Nicolas Sahnes at the Baudoin Lebon art gallery in Clairefontaine-en-Yvelines (78) from 8 October to the end of December.
Born in 1976 in Rodez, Nicolas Sanhes grew up on the family farm, where nothing a priori predestined him for a career as an artist. Nevertheless, he developed a passion for art very early on. It was his entry into the Perpignan School of Fine Arts in 1984 that marked the beginning of his vocation. From then on he never stopped developing his skills and technique. And if Nicolas Sanhes is known today for creating sculptural works that reflect his passion for organic forms and textures, for working with various materials, such as stone, wood, metal, bronze and clay, but also for his style recognisable by its finesse and meticulousness, its abstract forms seeming to come out of a dream... the man was not always a sculptor.
Nicolas Sanhes was particularly influenced during his studies by the radical approaches of Ellsworth Kelly and Ad Reinhardt. The Figuration Libre movement was in full swing at the time, but Nicolas Sanhes chose to move away from it immediately, developing abstract tar paintings in 1986 and 1987: the series entitled Champs noirs was a milestone. It consists of large black canvases, where the patterns are created by the texture of the tar on the raw linen. First shown in 1987 at the J.&J. Donguy art gallery in Paris, this series, critically acclaimed for its innovative use of raw material, as well as for the dynamic tension created between the deep black textures and abstract forms that appear in the paintings, marked an important turning point in Nicolas Sanhes' career. Having become highly sought-after works of art for sale by collectors, exhibited in numerous museums and art galleries in France and abroad, the paintings in Champs noirs finally revealed the artist's talent for creating abstract artworks.
And Nicolas Sanhe will never really abandon painting, even if he owes his fame to sculpture. For the past three years, painting has even occupied "a place of its own in his daily life and in his work, with each day beginning and ending with this practice," Véronique Bouruet-Aubertot points out in her article for Connaissance des arts. "It's a real breath of fresh air, a confrontation with another space," comments the artist. He who draws his inspiration from nature, music and geometric forms has finally settled in an impressive studio-dwelling that he custom-designed in Trappes, in the Yvelines, not far from his steel bar supplier. Just as he seeks to create sculptures that reflect harmony and balance in their forms and textures, when he is installed in the double-height space with chains and gantries for the larger pieces, he moves upstairs to devote himself to his painted work. Like an extension of the sculpted work.
For the original approach of the painter has its roots literally in that of the sculptor. Nicolas Sanhes takes photographs of his sculptures before using Photoshop to isolate the cutting of their voids and lines. "It is these forms that he then projects onto the canvas to construct a new space, also abstract, playing with flat areas and lines, with colour entering the dance in a lively and acidulous palette," explains the journalist from Connaissance des arts.
Painted or sculpted, his unique and timeless works of art are all the more emotionally powerful because they speak of reconstruction since the illness led their creator at the dawn of his thirties to reconsider his existence and his work profoundly. Sanhes' work explores the intersection of form and material, interweaving and intertwining cut steel bars to create balanced and elegant forms. Whereas the sculptors Eduardo Chillida or Bernard Venet create their works by casting, forging and twisting steel beams, Nicolas Sanhes works by construction from pre-cut segments of different lengths. By reconstructing new forms. Not to mention the fact that some of Sahnes' series of sculptures have been made from reclaimed or recycled materials, such as wood, metal and stone: by reusing existing materials to create new forms, Sanhes reconstructs their aesthetic potential and gives them a new life.