ART-PRESENTATION: François Morellet
François Morellet is widely recognised as a key representative of the Concrete Art Movement. Morellet began making art in the mid 1940s, self-taught, his early paintings depicted realist still-life subjects. However, in the 1950s Morellet became heavily influenced by the Neo-Plasticism and Concrete-Constructivist group, in particular the works of Piet Mondrian and Max Bill, whose abstract and geometric principles influenced the way in which Morellet saw the picture field as an infinite structure reaching beyond the confines of the picture itself.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Dia Art Foundation Archive
Working with lines and primary forms such as circles, squares, and triangles, Morellet adopted a large variety of mediums early on in his practice, including adhesive tape, iron, neon tubes, paint, steel, and wire mesh. While aiming for artistic objectivity, Morellet steadily infused his systematic explorations with playfulness and levity. The exhibition “François Morellet” is on presentation on both Dia: Chelsea and Dia: Beacon span the artist’s career, featuring 50 works ranging from the early 1950s to the 2010s. The first three galleries at Dia:Chelsea give a comprehensive overview of Morellet’s early conceptual categories as defined by the artist himself: “Juxtaposition; superimposition; fragmentation; interference; randomization; and destabilization”. These galleries include works dating from 1952, when the artist fully adopted abstract geometric systems, through the early 1970s. The exhibition extends outside of Dia:Chelsea’s galleries to include “Trames 3°, 87°, 93°, 183°” (1971-2017), a monumental wall painting covering the entire six-story surface of the west façade. Initially conceived and installed in 1971 as homage to the construction of the Beaubourg building, home of the future Centre Georges Pompidou, the red-and-blue superimposed grids were also Morellet’s first intégration architecturale. From then on, the artist multiplied sculptures and installations at architectural scale, commissioned both in private and public spaces. Also at Dia:Beacon is on presention the site-specific neon installation “No End Neon” (1990/2017). Reconfigured for the museum by the Morellet studio according tothe artist’s previously determined system, this re-siting forms the most expansive iteration of the work, with 60 neon tubes spread throughout Dia:Beacon’s lower-level gallery. This installation allows visitors to encounter Morellet’s artwork alongside his peers represented in Dia’s permanent collection, including: Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, and Fred Sandback. In the 1960’s Morellet co-founded the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuelle (GRAV) with Julio Le Parc, Francisco Sobrino, Yvaral (Jean-Pierre Vasarely) and others; an experimental group, focusing on the creation of installations using non-traditional art materials. Working in an anonymous way, Morellet reduced the role of the artist’s sensibility to a minimum – a distinct shift away from the egoism associated with Art Informel and Abstract Expressionist painters of this time. It was around this time that Morellet began working with neon. As well as optics and movement, Morellet was interested in using systems which combine logic and chance, juxtaposition, overlapping, interferences and fragmentation. It was this exploration into the kinetic perception which brought Morellet’s work critical acclaim, using systematic patterns, lattices and grids, his work created vibrant optical effects.. Morellet works with mathematics, rules and constraints to establish guides for the creation of this works, but allows chance to play in his compositions. Morellet’s oeuvre attests to the acceptance of a world, as he said, ‘governed solely by chance and tricks’. Combining chance with wit and playfulness, Morellet’s interest lies primarily in a reality reigned by chance, and the relationship between the creator and the role of the audience in viewing a work. By reducing his arbitrary decisions to a minimum, de-personalising the subjective processes, he endeavors to be anonymous, thus widening the realm of the viewer’s interpretation. Through scattering and disseminating at random, many of his works are able to adapt and respond directly to all environments in which they are placed, creating consistently unique viewing experiences. By working in this unsystematic way, Morellet is able to take advantage of forms offered by chance, which often guide the development of many of his installations, not only changing the form of his works, but the environment in which these works are directly shown.
Info: Curator: Béatrice Gross, Assistant Curator: Megan Holly Witko, Dia Art Foundation at Dia:Chelsea, 545 West 22nd Street, New York, Duration: 28/10/17-2/6/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00 & Dia:Beacon, 3 Beekman Street, Beacon, New York, Duration: 28/10/17-2/6/18, Days & Hours: January–March: Fri-Mon 11:00-16:00, April-October: Thu-Mon 11:00-18:00, November–December: Thu-Mon 11:00-16:00, www.diaart.org