EXHIBITION 'THE ADVENTURE OF ABSTRACT ART': CHARLES ESTIENNE, ART CRITIC OF THE 50S

From 13/07/2011 to 07/11/2011 - Museum of Fine Arts of Brest

Born in Brest, art critic and poet Charles Estienne (1908-1966) returns to his native city where the museum of fine arts devotes a superb exhibition to him.

Marked by the work of Gauguin and Sérusier, upon his arrival in Paris in 1945, he became interested in contemporary artists, becoming a fervent defender of lyrical abstractionists whose approach he helped to clarify. Friend of André Breton whom he met in 1947, he was to play a leading role in the rapprochement between surrealism and oneiric abstraction. From 1953 to 1956, in the small gallery of the Sealed Star, of which André Breton was artistic director, surrealist painters and lyrical abstractionists exhibited together. Period of great artistic effervescence which saw the succession of exhibitions born from the collaboration between the two poets: "Perenniality of Gallic art" at the pedagogical museum of Paris, "Alice in Wonderland", Kleber gallery, in 1955, etc.

The exhibition organized by the museum of fine arts of Brest chose to privilege artistic encounters in Breton land. Deeply attached to northern Finistère, Charles Estienne invited his painter friends there, such as Serge Poliakoff, Marcelle Loubchansky, Jean Degottex, René Duvillier, Jan Krizek, Toyen, so that they could confront the natural elements. Then came Yves Elléouët accompanied by his wife Aube, André Breton's daughter, Jean-Claude Silbermann, and many others. Put to the test of "the great saga of aurora borealis and magnetic storms", the artists invented a writing by signs, both gestural and automatic. The exhibition presents a large number of these China inks on paper and their confrontation reveals unexpected affinities. Canvases, inks, painted pebbles and sculptures dialogue freely in the exhibition, a true jewel offered to us by the two curators, Françoise Daniel, chief curator of the museum, and Catherine Elkar, director of Frac Bretagne, with the help of Marc Duvillier, grandson of the painter.

The catalog is remarkable. Besides abundantly illustrated notices for each artist, a detailed chronology, numerous rare documents, let us note the texts by Françoise Daniel, Catherine Elkar, Yves Kobry, Georges Richar-Rivier, Renée Mabin and Jean-Clarence Lambert. Renée Mabin examined "the painters of Argenton", relating very precisely the summer meetings around this small port where Charles Estienne stayed. At the same time, she reconstitutes the links established between the critic and the artists through magazines and surrealist exhibitions. Jean-Clarence Lambert, friend of Charles Estienne, relates his journey which often crosses that of André Breton. Their common love of "Celtic genius", art of the sign, is perceptible in the exhibition of the museum of fine arts of Brest which brings a retrospective look: "Celtic-Gallic art is at once so far and so close to us, so archaic and so modern that we had to wait for the latest conquests of modern art to understand them".

Museum of Fine Arts: 24, rue Traverse 29200 BREST
Tel: 02 98 00 87 96

Open every day, except Monday, Sunday morning and holidays from 10am to 12pm and from 2pm to 6pm.

Press kit: http://www.brest.fr/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/DP-Charles-Estienne.pdf