Galerie Hervé Bize
Frieze New York 2016

François Morellet at Spotlight – Booth D35

Frieze New York, Manhattan, Randall's Island Park
May 5-8, 2016 (Preview Day, Wednesday, May 4)

The galerie Hervé Bize is pleased to announce our participation in the 2016 edition of Frieze New York.
This marks the gallery's second and consecutive appearance at the fair.

We will be exhibiting an outstanding group of works by the French renowned artist François Morellet,
which will coincide with the 90th birthday of the artist, born in Cholet on April 30, 1926.
The gallery is collaborating closely with the artist since its creation in 1989.
The aim of this project for the Spotlight sector is to provide an original perspective from which to
consider two phases of François Morellet’s work: the first, of a systematic and minimal order, the
second, of a kinetic or rather, so as not to restrict it to one appellation, of an unstable order so as to
introduce disruptions: four rhythms of neon (1972) whose pulses create a square, the outline of a
sculpture (Sphère-trames, 1962) which simplifies the vision of the spectator who no longer has to go all
the way round it in order to establish where is the best view point, but who can just turn it round, as well
as a thread spinning on itself (Wave Motion Thread, 1965) according to the laws of physics, and without
forgetting an amazing and vibratory wallpaper installation produced from a random distribution of
squares which is going to cover entirely our booth (including the flooring).
Actually chance was as important as the artist himself who chose non-artistic materials, invented rules
of game, and set up systems and serial experiments to make the work of art happen without further
interference from the artist. François Morellet for instance declared null and void his own creative
ecstasy, spontaneity and emotion and at the same time the value of the handmade and unrepeatable
original; he pretended to just spread out the tablecloth for the spectator’s picnic. And as Max Imdahl
wrote in 1970: the material anonymity, that is to say the renunciation of any material uniqueness frees
the spirituality of the work as its only and essential originality.
This selection of works especially conceived for the fair begins in 1961 and ends in 1986, that is to say
just one year after Morellet’s retrospective exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum.
His work, which has been exhibiting nationally and internationally for over 60 years, is represented in
many public collections, among them the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum (Abu
Dhabi), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Hirshhorn Museum
and Sculpture Garden, Washington.