23 May 2019

Pierre Buraglio - First retrospective exhibition at Saint-Etienne

This summer the MAMC+ will be presenting the first retrospective exhibition of Pierre Buraglio, bringing together nearly two hundred works from 1960 to today. From early on, between figuration and abstraction, his paintings, collages, drawings, assemblies and staplings immediately propulsed painting into a mechanical process. The chronological display on show at the MAMC+ retraces the major career phases of this singular artist – who discarded his paintbrushes at the end of the 1960's only to took them up again in the 1990's – and whose works, from paintings to objects, are linked to a constant search for 'enlarged' painting.

Born in 1939, Pierre Buraglio grew up in the family house, built by his Italian ascendants who were road workers and bricklayers, at Maisons-Alfort, where he still lives today.

Initiated into art by his architect father, he was admitted in 1959 to the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he frequented the workshop of Roger Chastel who rejected all notions of aestheticism in favour of the 'ethic'. His encounters with Claude Viallat, Gilles Aillaud and Simon Hantaï, each one advocating a new pictorial approach, and the discovery of American abstract painting proved to be determining factors in the implementation of his own artistic practices.

The chronological circuit of the exhibition covers over more than 700 m², based on the order of Pierre Buraglio's own series. Thanks to loans from some twenty museums and around forty collectors, all very committed to the artist, nearly two hundred works are brought together in an exceptional form. The production of posters and collaborations with publishers and writers reveal a highly diverse body of work, leaving plenty of room for experimentation and for thought.

The MAMC+ supported the work of Pierre Buraglio from the 1980's, acquiring several major pieces and continues its commitment with this original retrospective, devoted to the sixty years of production from this French artist whose work has shook and disrupted the artistic scene since the 1960's.

The work of Pierre Buraglio has been exhibited in highly prestigious institutions: the ARC-Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris in 1976, the Musée de Grenoble in 1979, the Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou in 1982, the CAPC musée d'art contemporain of Bordeaux in 1999, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in 2004 and the Musée Fabre in Montpellier in 2009.

Curator of the exhibition, Director of the Museum : Aurélie Voltz