Claude Closky (born 22 May 1963) is a French artist who lives and works in Paris.

Reception

Closky won the "Grand prix des Arts plastiques" (1999) and the

Marcel Duchamp Prize The Marcel Duchamp Prize (in French : ''Prix Marcel Duchamp'') is an annual award given to a young artist by the Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l'Art Français (ADIAF). The winner receives €35,000 personally and up to €30,000 ...

(2005) awarded by the ADIAF. Dike Blair wrote in ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

'' Magazine that "The lightness of Closky's art belies the depth of its absurdist heredity. Working in a post-modernist mode, Closky's art works combine aspects of the

Situationists The Situationist International (SI) was an Proletarian internationalism, international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and Political philosophy, political theorists. It was prominent in Eu ...

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers, and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental performance art, art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finishe ...

, Beckett,

Daniel Buren Daniel Buren (born 25 March 1938, in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French conceptual artist, painter, and sculptor. He has won numerous awards including the Golden Lion for best pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1986), the International Award for ...

, and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

Life and career

Claude Closky has no formal training as a visual artist. He entered the ENSAD (Ecole National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in 1982, but quit at the end of the first year to co-found ''The Ripoulin Brothers'', a street artist collective, with Bla+Bla+Bla, Nina Childress, Jean Faucheur,

Pierre Huyghe Pierre Huyghe (born 11 September 1962) is a French contemporary artist, who works in a variety of media from films and sculptures to public interventions and living systems. He lives and works in Santiago de Chile. Early life and education Pier ...

, Manhu, Ox, Trois carrés. In 1988, he left the group to develop his independent work, using voluntarily poor means such as drawing and printed matter. He has participated in the Biennials of Lyon (1995), Sydney (1996),

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

(2000),

València Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

(2001),

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

(2005),

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

(2017),

Mardin Mardin (; ; romanized: ''Mārdīn''; ; ) is a city and seat of the Artuklu District of Mardin Province in Turkey. It is known for the Artuqids, Artuqid architecture of its old city, and for its strategic location on a rocky hill near the Tigris ...

(2024). In 2000, the Mudam (Luxembourg Art Museum) commissioned him to conceive and manage its website, for which he made a magazine and a gallery dedicated to the internet. The site was launched at the Luxembourg Pavilion in the 2001,

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. It presented specific works by Heath Bunting, François Curlet, Pierre Leguillon, Aleksandra Mir, Peter Kogler,

David Shrigley David John Shrigley (born 17 September 1968) is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. Shrigley first came to prominence in the 1990s for his distinct line drawi ...

, among others. Since 2005, he has taught at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in nor ...

in Paris. In 2012, he curated ''This & There'', an exhibition to celebrate the tenth year of the ''Pavilion,

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

Laboratory for Creation'' (Paris) which presented the work of 74 artists in 74 different spaces. He has curated in 2020 ''X'' at the Frac Pays de la Loire and in 2023 ''Offset'' at the Centre des livres d'artistes.

Work

The work of Claude Closky is mainly immaterial. Language is his model to articulate images, text, numbers, and sounds collected in our environment, or made in his studio. Although Closky is reluctant to produce objects and spectacular effects, his work still addresses issues about visibility and space appropriation. Claude Closky's projects always find alternative ways to emancipate themselves from the formats imposed by the sites where they are exhibited. He seeks to point out the contradictions of our contemporary society and its representations, but also to question the role of art as producer of a cultural consensus and set of values. His works confront and question our environment, the conditions and benefits of artistic production, its relation to an audience.

Selected publications

References

External links

Claude Closky offline works

Claude Closky online works

Text
by Lynne Cooke about Closky's commission for the

Dia Art Foundation Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumbe ...

, 1997
Text
by Dike Blair about Closky's art pieces for the web, 1999.
Text
by

Marie Muracciole Marie Muracciole is a writer and curator based in Paris and Beirut. Early life Marie Muracciole studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She shifted her visual art practice to writing in 1991. ...

about Closky's exhibition at Museo Madre,

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, 2007
Text by Marie Muracciole about Closky's exhibitions ''Laloli'' and ''Rarori'', 2010

''Square One'', text by Katy Siegel and Paul Mattick, 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Closky, Claude 1963 births Living people French mixed-media artists Academic staff of the École des Beaux-Arts École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs alumni French new media artists