François Morellet (30 April 1926 – 10 May 2016) was a French contemporary abstract painter, sculptor, and

light art Light art or The Art of Light is generally referring to a visual art form in which (physical) light is the main, if not sole medium of creation. Uses of the term differ drastically in incongruence; definitions, if existing, vary in several asp ...

ist. His early work prefigured minimal art and

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called ins ...

and he played a prominent role in the development of

geometric Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is ca ...

abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 1 ...

and post-conceptual art.

Career

Morellet began to make

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, bo ...

paintings at the age of 14 as he studied

Russian literature Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were composed. By the ...

in Paris. After completing his studies, he returned to Cholet in 1948, where he continued to paint, now in the spirit of the COBRA movement. After this short period of figurative/representational work, Morellet turned to

abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abst ...

in 1950 after encountering the Concrete art of

Max Bill Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer. Early life and education Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmit ...

. Morellet then adopted a pictorial language of simple

forms: lines, squares and triangles assembled into two-dimensional compositions. In 1960, he was one of the founders of the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV), with fellow artists Francisco Sobrino,

Horatio Garcia-Rossi Horatio is an English male given name, an Italianized form of the ancient Roman Latin '' nomen'' (name) '' Horatius'', from the Roman ''gens'' (clan) '' Horatia''. The modern Italian form is '' Orazio'', the modern Spanish form '' Horacio''. It ap ...

, Hugo DeMarco,

Julio Le Parc Julio Le Parc (born September 23, 1928) is an Argentina-born artist who focuses on both modern op art and kinetic art. Le Parc attended the School of Fine Arts in Argentina. A founding member of Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) and awa ...

, Jean-Pierre Yvaral (the son of

Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work entitled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, is consid ...

), Joël Stein, Vera Molnár and

François Molnár François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, King ...

(the last two left the group shortly after). Morellet began at this time to work with neon tube lighting. From the 1960s on, Morellet worked in various materials (fabric, tape, neon, walls...) and in doing so investigated the use of the exhibition space in terms similar to artists of

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

and environmental art. He gained an international reputation, especially in Germany and France, and he was commissioned to create work for public and private collections in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and the U.S. One of his works is part of the permanent collection of the

Centre for International Light Art The Centre for International Light Art (CILA, German: ''Zentrum für Internationale Lichtkunst'') is an art museum in Unna, Germany. It is the world's only museum which is exclusively dedicated to the collection and presentation of light art. ...

(CILA) in Unna, Germany. In 2016/2017, the CILA staged a retrospective of Morellet's Light Art, the last exhibition to be curated by the artist himself, shortly before his death in May 2016.

Work

Morellet's abstract ideal was, he said, tempered by the charming

nihilism Nihilism (; ) is a philosophy, or family of views within philosophy, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, such as objective truth, knowledge, morality, values, or meaning. The term was popularized by I ...

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

. For him, a work of art referred only to itself. His titles are generally sophisticated, show some Duchampian word play, and describe the "constraints" or "rules" that he used to create them. Like other contemporary artists who use constraints and chance (or the

aleatory Aleatoricism or aleatorism, the noun associated with the adjectival aleatory and aleatoric, is a term popularised by the musical composer Pierre Boulez, but also Witold Lutosławski and Franco Evangelisti, for compositions resulting from "action ...

) in their works, such as (

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading f ...

in music and the

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for french: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: ''"workshop of potential literature"'', stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create work ...

group in literature, Morellet used rules and constraints established in advance to guide the creation of his works while also allowing chance to play a role in some of his compositions. This dialectic between the rigid rule-based procedure and chance situates his work within the Post-conceptual art category. His rigorous use of geometry tends to create emotionally neutral work, and also placed him close to Minimal art and

Conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called ins ...

in his aims. He shared a particular affinity to the American artists

Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in Ma ...

and

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

. * Series: ''Répartitions aléatoires'' ("Chance divisions") from the 1950s * ''Répartition de 16 formes identiques'' - painted after his visit to the

Alhambra The Alhambra (, ; ar, الْحَمْرَاء, Al-Ḥamrāʾ, , ) is a palace and fortress complex located in Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It is one of the most famous monuments of Islamic architecture and one of the best-preserved palaces of ...

Granada Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...

* Series: ''Trames'' from the 1950s * Series: ''Désintégrations architecturales'' ("Architectural disintegrations") from 1971 * Series: ''Géométrées'' from 1983 * Series: ''Défigurations'' from 1988 * Series: ''Déclinaisons de pi'' ("Versions of pi") from 1998 File:Album de 10 sérigraphies sur 10 ans 03.jpg File:Album de 10 sérigraphies sur 10 ans 07.jpg File:Album de 10 sérigraphies sur 10 ans 08.jpg File:Album de 10 sérigraphies sur 10 ans 09.jpg

Recognition

* April 10, 2016, the first François Morellet Prize (awarded to a personality for his writings on art) was awarded to

Catherine Millet Catherine Millet (; born 1 April 1948 in Bois-Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French writer, art critic, curator, and founder and editor of the magazine '' Art Press'', which focuses on modern art and contemporary art. Biography Born in Bois-Col ...

Philippe Méaille Philippe Méaille (; born 27 April 1973) is a French author and art collector, and the founder and president of the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art. Currently, Méaille owns the world's largest collection of Art & Language wo ...

. This prize is awarded every year as part of Les Journées nationales du Livre et du Vin (The National Book and Wine Days) in

Saumur Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France. The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur s ...

( Loire Valley), in partnership with the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art. * November 7, 2016, the

Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

gathers Francois Morellet's friends and accomplices at a lecture-event. * December 13, 2016, the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art installs "Curved door-to-door" on its facade. * October 6, 2017, the museum of art and history of Cholet dedicates a room to François Morellet in which will be regularly presented different works.

Art market

From 2017 until 2020, Morellet's estate worked with Lévy Gorvy before moving to Hauser & Wirth.Alex Greenberger (November 23, 2020)
Estate of Pioneering Abstractionist François Morellet Heads to Hauser & Wirth, Departing Blue-Chip Competitor
''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...

''.

Footnotes

References

* Beate Reifenscheid und Dorothea van der Koelen; Arte in Movimento – Kunst in Bewegung, Dokumente unserer Zeit XXXIV; Chorus-Verlag; Mainz 2011; * * ''Kazimir Malevitch & François Morellet/ Carrément'' Texts by Bernard Marcadé, Jean-Claude Marcadé, François Morellet, Serge Lemoine, Editions Kamel Mennour, 2011. * ''Carrément - Discrètement''. Exhibition catalogue. Text by Christian Skimao. Montpellier, 2001. * Lejeunne, Denis. 2012. ''The Radical Use of Chance in 20th Century Art'', Rodopi Press, Amsterdam, pp. 129–173 * Lemoine, Serge. ''François Morellet''. Waser Verlag: Zurich, 1986. * Lemoine, Serge. ''François Morellet''. Flammarion: Paris, 1996. * ''Morellet.'' Exhibition catalogue. Essays by Dominique Bozo, Bernard Blistène, Catherine Millet, Rudi Oxenaar, Alain Coulange, Johannes Cladders; Interview with Christian Besson. Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1986. * ''Morellet''. Exhibition catalogue. Essays by Jean-François Groulier, Jacqueline Lichtenstein, Thomas McEvilley, Arnauld Pierre; Chronology by Stéphanie Jamet. Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume/Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris 2000. * Morellet, François. ''Mais comment taire mes commentaires'' Collections: Ecrits d’artistes. École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1999.

External links

* Projet à sticker
Cneai (National Center for Edition, Art and Images)

Chatou Chatou () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Chatou is a part of the affluent suburbs of western Paris and is on the northwest side of the Seine river about from the city's center. ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morellet, Francois 1926 births 2016 deaths Op art French sculptors French male sculptors Minimalist artists French contemporary artists 20th-century French painters 20th-century male artists French male painters 21st-century French painters 21st-century male artists People from Cholet