Press release
“What is painting? It is matter.” (Eugène Leroy, 1990)
Galerie Michael Werner is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of paintings by French artist Eugène Leroy (1910-2000). The exhibition focuses on the late work of the “artist of the century”, presenting small- and large-format oil paintings made between 1992 and 1999. Juxtaposed with an early painting from 1959, the compelling evolution of Eugène Leroy’s oeuvre emerges.
The viewer’s first impression while observing Eugène Leroy’s paintings is the overwhelming notion of pure color. In the artist’s words, Leroy struggled against the “matter” of oil-based paint. Leroy “dirtied” the canvas by thickly layering oil paint and compressing and applying the paint with a palette knife. Various colors intertwine and multifarious streaks form with the brush. Fine lines and swirling spirals of color build a crater-shaped landscape. As the 1959 painting suggests, the early work of the artist already possessed a tendency towards plasticity. Particular color sections turn impasto and rise up, the color reaching into space. Inevitably, associations to paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn, an artist Eugène Leroy admired, are awakened.
The materiality of color becomes clear in Leroy’s work. Surrounding space and motif merge into one another, oscillating between abstraction and figuration. Fish, flowers and nudes slowly emerge from masses of paint and gain clarity through the process of perception: depending on the incidence of light and the viewer’s vantage point, shadows change and points begin to shine. The congealed color implies a movement that the viewer continues with their eyes, and thus, with respect to the creative process (as well as to the act of perception), spatiality and temporality blend together in the painting’s materiality. The artist considered his color constructs as being in progress, reconstituting themselves with the viewer’s intuition as moving “picture-events”.
Eugène Leroy has been the subject of numerous major exhibitions worldwide, including Wiener Secession (1970), École des Beaux-Arts, Lille (1977), Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent (1982), Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1988), Kunsthalle Basel (1997), Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2000), MUba - Eugène Leroy, Tourcoing (2010). He has also participated in XXI. Biennale Internationale de Sao Paulo (1991), documenta IX, Kassel (1992) and the 46th Venice Biennale (1995). Eugène Leroy was honored with the Prix Emile-Othon Friez in 1977 and with the French Grand Prix Nationale de la Peinture in 1996. From 13 June 2014 to 5 October 2014 Joanneum in Graz will present the solo exhibition “Eugène Leroy. Simply Painting”.
The exhibition opens at Galerie Michael Werner in Märkisch Wilmersdorf 10 June and remains on view through 25 July. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10am to 5pm. Booking in advance is recommended by phone +49 (0)33731 32010 or email galeriewerner@michaelwerner.de.