Contemporary art is also a big part of the autumn season!
On the subject of contemporary art exhibitions, which should not be forgotten as the autumn turns the spotlight on modern art.
Far from the major modern art exhibitions that are dominating the front pages of all the other art magazines this autumn, with Nicolas de Staël and Modigliani in the spotlight, the contemporary art magazine Artpress has chosen for its cover a photograph by Bertille Bak, born in Arras in 1983, who answers questions from Aurélie Cavanna on the occasion of her nomination for the Marcel Duchamp Prize. The magazine also takes a look back at the exhibitions that have impressed its contributors this summer. For example, Le Cri des fleurs, by the Franco-Israeli artist Yosef Joseph Dadoune, born in 1975, can be seen until 5 November at the Musée d'art et d'histoire du judaïsme in Paris. The MAHJ is showcasing Dadoune's wide range of practices, despite the fact that he is best known in France as a video artist.
While the film Universes takes us on a journey through territories, cultures and rituals, having been conceived from photographs taken during three performances held in distinct locations (the Villa Arson, where Dadoune first became aware of art, Ofakim and the Negev desert where he grew up, and Safed in Galilee, in the northern part of Israel), it resonates above all with the more recent works of art presented in the exhibition. Like her drawings, in which the flower appears for the first time in the series Poèmes Hannah Arendt (2016), before becoming the main subject. "While the roots are like veins irrigating these plant bodies, in places barbed wires emerge (La Fleur vorace, 2023): the stigmata of war seem to intrude into the very structure of the plants. The flowers cry tears of blood over this endless war," writes Elodie Antoine.
Claire Margat has chosen to comment on two exhibitions. The exhibition still on show at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris until 19 November: "Senghor and the arts. Reinventing the universal". Works of art and documents retrace the thoughts of the poet and statesman Léopold Sédar Senghor, pioneer of the "négritude" movement, President of Senegal from 1960 to 1980 and the first African to be elected to the Académie française in 1983. It was he who organised the first "World Festival of Negro Arts" in Dakar in 1966. As the journalist recalls, "Senghor's voluntarism in promoting African art was criticised in 1974 when Issa Samb burnt his paintings that had been selected for the exhibition Art sénégalais d'aujourd'hui at the Grand Palais: a contemporary African art movement was born with the Agit'Art collective. Between political commitment and state recognition, the place of art and artists needs to be redefined, in Africa as elsewhere.
The journalist also went to see the "Michel Nedjar" exhibition at the Collection de l'art brut in Lausanne, on view until 29 October. Born in France in 1947, the artist and experimental filmmaker refers to his prolific output of creations as "dolls". Fifty years of creation are on show here, thanks to a generous donation.
Claire Pacquet visited the exhibition at Mudam in Luxembourg, which closed on 10 September: "Dayanita Singh. Dancing with my camera". The artist-photographer, born in 1961 in New Delhi, is interested in realities as diverse as archives, architecture, music, dance and the construction of gender identity, and explores the relational nature of images. "What Singh seems to be telling us," writes Claire Pacquet, "is that far from being fixed objects, images require, in order to be captured, temporary operations that have to be repeated over and over again.
Art critic Paul Ardenne chose to write about the exhibition, which ended on 10 September at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris: "Laura Lamiel. Can you hear them? The visual artist, born in 1943, is the first guinea pig for her work of art, which focuses on the human species, and the way she holds it up as a sensitive perimeter to be surveyed and meditated upon. "Lamiel's work, woven from abysses, is a fascinating synthesis of styles, methods and references, from minimal art and arte povera to the most advanced forms of psychological sculpture," writes Paul Ardenne. He also wrote another article for Artpress on his return from the exhibition: "Elmgreen & Dragset. Bonne chance". This famous exhibition at the Centre Pompidou-Metz is the subject of a separate article. Where the human being never stops looking for its place. "A sadistic device, to say the least. To identify with these sculptures of ourselves, even more so, is to have to admit our dependence, the glue of social alienation", writes the journalist.
Chirine Hammouch was enthralled by the "Ron Mueck" exhibition at the Fondation Cartier, on show in Paris until 5 November. "The sculptor's key works, as well as those completed last spring, offer a fascinating reflection on the laughable and tragic nature of human existence. It has to be said that as soon as you enter, a monumental pile of human skulls immediately sets the tone!
Maud de la Forterie takes us to the Domaine national de Chambord, where the exhibition "Lionel Sabatté. Pollens clandestins", the fruit of the artist's residency at the estate, can still be seen until 17 September. She also takes us to Arles to talk about Carrie Mae Weems, whose photographic work, rarely shown in France, has been on show at the Fondation Luma since 26 May; and in Zurich, where the museum-quality summer exhibition, which ends on 16 September at the Hauser & Wirth art gallery, has brought together works by Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Louise Bourgeois.
Isabelle de Maison Rouge comments on the exhibition devoted to Thu-Van Tran at Mamac in Nice until 1 October: "Nous vivons dans l'éclat" ("We live in brilliance"). The exhibition includes a return to the Vietnamese origins of the artist, who lives and works in France and was born in Ho Chi Minh City in 1975, a recurring point of departure for her artistic and aesthetic reflections. "This distant land that she knows so little about, but which she evokes or even summons up in a linguistic journey in which she positions herself as a translator. The country of her birth, so regularly the victim of incursions by Western powers".
Marc Donnadieu takes another look at the Rencontres de la photographie d'Arles, which runs until 24 September, noting that Christoph Wiesner, director for the third year running, has found his feet: "the selection is more structured, the themes tighter, the space given to each project more ample, and some are even accompanied by dedicated meetings".
Francesca Pietropaolo appreciates that the exhibition in Florence at the Museo Novecento and other venues demonstrates the extent to which the art of Y.Z. Kami's art "is imbued with an evanescent yet sensual presence, internal transformations and spiritual contemplation". In Marseilles, it was Esther Teillard who noted how Jean Le Gac felt at the Musée Regards de Provence like "the madman who is never seen anywhere but in the hold of his ship". After the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire last year, we are delighted to find him "hidden" here until 19 November.
Jeanne Mathas went to explore the Creux de l'Enfer in Thiers and the Château de Goutelas in Marcoux for "Penser comme une montagne", and came across works of art by Marinette Cueco, Sarah Laaroussi, Bastien Mignot, Astrid Nobel, Jérôme Dupeyrat and Laurent Sfar, Marjolaine Turpin, Karine Bonneval, Jean-Baptiste Perret, Gilles Clément...
Finally, Etienne Hatt was able to admire the Frac Auvergne's first exhibition in its new venue, and "the last of Jean-Charles Vergne who, after 27 years at the helm, has decided to turn the page in a regional political context that we now know to be very tense". To be continued.