MuseoMag: MuseoMag 2021_01

MuseoMag 2021_01

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Title:: MuseoMag

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Title:: MuseoMag 2021_01

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Title:: A new vitality in the form's endless flexibility: Two founding members of the Supports/surfaces movement, Viallat and Saytour, questioning painting itself

4 museomag 01 ‘ 2021 A NEW VITALITY IN THE FORM‘S ENDLESS FLEXIBILITY TWO FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE SUPPORTS/SURFACES MOVEMENT, VIALLAT AND SAYTOUR, QUESTIONING PAINTING ITSELF Saytours monumental Pliage (1969) came to the museum with the generous sup port of the Amis des Musées last year. © éric chenal One of the undeniable strengths of the MNHA’s col- lection of international art is the ensemble of paintings by an artistic movement from 1966-1972 which helped laying the foundation for contemporary French art, both in painting and sculpture: Supports/Surfaces. In fact, the museum, with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, houses one of the most important public collections worldwide of artists belonging to - or associated with Supports/Surfaces. This collection, which has been carefully built up over many years, is still actively strengthened with donations and purchases. From 21 December 2020 to 29 August 2021 important acqui- sitions from recent years are shown in the context of our rich museum holdings in this field. The presenta- tion focuses on works by two founding members of the Supports/Surfaces movement: Patrick Saytour (b.1935) and Claude Viallat (b.1936). Of the eleven works on dis- play by these two giants of French modern painting, no less than five were acquired by the MNHA in 2019 and 2020. Saytours monumental Pliage (1969), which came to the museum with the generous support of the Amis des Musées, is among the works that can now be shared with our visitors for the first time. As for beginnings: Supports/Surfaces had its birth- place in the south of France, where most of the group’s earliest members lived and worked, in cities like Mont- pellier, Nîmes and Nice (the latter two cities are in fact the birthplaces of Viallat and Saytour, respectively). There they were part of a group of twelve artists, no- tably with Vincent Bioulès, Louis Cane, Daniel Dezeuze, Jean-Pierre Pincemin and Bernard Pagès, along with several others who were closely affiliated. From the start, their work was marked by an interest in materia- lity, a lyrical use of color and expansive ideas of what constitutes a painting. DEMISTIFYING THE FORM The group’s name refers to their attempt to strip pain- ting down to its most essential components. Surface alludes to the canvas of a painting, while support re- fers to the stretcher bars that gives a painting structural integrity. By exposing the conventions and processes of painting, they hoped to demystify the form while proposing new possibilities to explore. The artists of the group also questioned the art market, as well as certain rules about dating and signing works. They had a heartfelt desire to return to a sort of reductive and essential art practice. Claude Viallat summarized it as follows: «Dezeuze painted frames without canvas, I painted canvas without frames and Saytour the image

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