Olivier MOSSET (b. 1944) - Lot 216

Lot 216
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Estimation :
20000 - 30000 EUR
Olivier MOSSET (b. 1944) - Lot 216
Olivier MOSSET (b. 1944) Untitled, 1974 Acrylic on canvas, stapled to stretcher Signed and dated on canvas on back Two small drips on the right side, small indentation in the center to the right 100 x 100 cm Provenance: given by Olivier Mosset to Catherine Millet at the time; Catherine Millet and Jacques Henric collection, Paris. Born in 1944, Olivier Mosset is one of the leading figures in contemporary abstract painting. Co-founder of the BMPT movement (Buren, Mosset, Parmentier, Toroni), which emerged in the late 1960s - and whose approach calls into question the notion of identity and personal expression in artistic creation - his approach envisages an objective, radical painting, reduced to the essential components of surface, color and form. Mosset defines it as "a critique of the market for the uniqueness of the art object, as well as of the sensitive and expressive aspects of painting at the time [...], a slightly more political reflection on artistic practice". Revealed by the Untitled series, depicting a black circle centered on a white background, to which our canvas belongs, Mosset achieves a form of absolute through his monochrome, structured compositions, where the artist's gesture is revealed with impact. Between 1966 and 1975, the circle motif, with its invariable diameter of 15.5 cm and thickness of 3.25 cm, was used on around 200 canvases. Mosset moved to the United States in 1977, where he continued his minimalist approach, influenced by Malevich and Mondrian. He then explored other motifs, notably stripes, before returning to the circle, which had become his symbol of artistic neutrality, in colorful variations or detached from any background, thus questioning the boundary between painting and sculpture. Catherine Millet and Olivier Mosset enjoy a fruitful relationship, and their work was the subject of a rare dialogue between the art critic and the artist, first published by Art Press in 1977, in which Mosset explains of the motif in the Untitled series: "It was insofar as I considered that I had found a solution that I repeated it". Later, in 1987, in her reference anthology L'art contemporain en France, Catherine Millet made a remarkably definitive statement about BMPT and Olivier Mosset: "Stripes, brushstrokes and black circles are intended to demystify art. And a pure and simple affirmation of painting". Bibliography: Catherine Millet, L'art contemporain en France, Paris, Flammarion, 1995, our painting reproduced on page 126 with the mention Galerie Daniel Templon 1970 (Madame Millet confirmed that it was indeed our work); Michel Gauthier (dir.), Olivier Mosset: travaux / works, 1966-2003, exhibition catalog (Lausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts; Saint-Gall, Kunstmuseum; Santa Fe, SITE, 2003-2004), Milan, Éditions 5 Continents, 2003. Works from the same series reproduced on pages 49-51 and 110; Catherine Millet, "Échapper au poids du signe. Interview with Olivier Mosset", Artpress, no. 11, October 1977, pp. 20-21; interview republished in Olivier Mosset, Deux ou trois choses que je sais d'elle... Écrits et entretiens. 1966-2003, Genève, Éditions du musée d'Art moderne et contemporain (MAMCO), 2005, pp. 51-53; Catherine Perret, Olivier Mosset. La peinture, même, Neuchâtel, Éditions Ides et Calendes, 2004, 199 p. (works from the same series reproduced on page 33); Élisabeth Wetterwald, Olivier Mosset, Paris, Les Presses du Réel, 2020, 264 p. (works in the same series reproduced on pages 19-29, 33, 35, 37, 39, 48-50 and 83).
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