| MICHEL PARMENTIER | Biography | |
| opere e documenti | ||
| curated by GUY MASSAUX | ||
| 16 september – 30 december 2022 |
Galleria Il Ponte presents the first exhibition by Michel Parmentier in Italy, curated by Guy Massaux, artist and Parmentier’s longstanding assistant, in collaboration with the Eduardo Secci Gallery in Milan.
On show is a historical set of works from the 1960s, 1980s and 1990s, accompanied by a rich selection of drawings and contemporary documents bearing witness to his singular artistic career.
Right from the start, indicated by the artist as 1966, Parmentier’s works consist of horizontal stripes measuring precisely 38 cm in height, alternating colour and white, made using the pliage (folding) technique introduced by Hungarian artist Simon Hantaï in 1960. Each year the artist varied the colour of the works in his rigorous production, dedicating the colour blue to 1966, grey to 1967 and red to 1968. In addition, most of his works carried the date of their creation on the back, which he used as the title.
Mentioning a comment by Bernard Blistène from 1992, Laura Lisbon pinpointed the crucial element in understanding Parmentier’s work: his “way of being” an artist. Formed with a strong philosophical background, the artist’s profound interest in Blanchot’s “space of literature” concept embraced complex space including its absence, reserve and necessary silence. It is a space that stands apart from the author, producing an experience that can only be seen or learnt through detachment. If Parmentier is not a “literary” painter, it is precisely because his work seeks face up to, not to represent, this “space of literature”. His modality to making his works included crucial moments of inactivity or rejection and cannot be separated from reflection on the experience of the “space of literature” as well as notions of reserve, restriction, and silence which suggests a painting ethic as an approach to painting.
In 1968 Michel Parmentier officially announced his retirement from the art world… He would start again 15 years later, in 1983, no explanation given, until his last work 20 Novembre 1999.
