The show originates from both artists’ preoccupation with production processes, colours and construction. A founding member of the Supports/Surfaces movement, Claude Viallat has been obsessively repeating the same pattern since the late 1960’s. Using numerous types of cloths, garments and textiles and hundreds of different color combinations, he has been building a coherent corpus of works for the last 50 years thereby gaining a position at the forefront of French contemporary art.
Since his first solo show at J Gallery in 2012, Wang Yi has also pursued the same goal relentlessly. Using acrylic and transparent paint on canvas and aluminium, he has experimented dozens of colour combinations in impeccably geometrical constructions, seeking to make perfectly produced works where the hand of the artist becomes almost invisible.
Whilst different in both age and background, the approach and artistic conception of the two artists are remarkably similar and their respective production can be usefully compared and contrasted.
Born in 1936 in Nimes, Claude Viallat is one of the most respected French contemporary artists in the world. In the late 1960’s, he became part of the Supports/Surfaces movement. This movement sought to reinvent painting and the way to approach a painting. Some of the followers painted on frames, others on the side of the paintings, others painted squares or circles. Viallat took away the frame from the painting and used only the cloth. He took the motif he is known for from the contour of a sponge that he once found in the sink in his apartment. He took this pattern to have no connotation or association and thought its shape was akin to man’s most primitive artistic gesture as he dipped a hand in paint and applied in on rock. Using hundreds of colours, materials and paints, Viallat has endlessly reinvented the same painting for the last 50 years.
Viallat’s works have been exhibited extensively in solo shows at the Ludwig Museum (Koblenz, Germany), at the Frost Art Museum (Miami, U.S.A.), at the Fondation Van Gogh (Arles, France), National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Sarajevo, Bosnia), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France) and at the 43rd Venice Biennale in 1989.
Born in Shanghai in 1991, Wang Yi’s practice is closely related to the new abstract movement in China initiated by Ding Yi. His works on canvas are influenced by Frank Stella and Vasarely as they rely on chromatic variations and geometrical shapes to create an illusion of movement and depth within the canvas. As to his works on aluminium, he maintains the same construction and only relies on the number of layers applied to the plate to vary the effect and theoutcome. His artistic production is typical of the new generation of Chinese artists, many of whom choose to abstain from any political or social commentary in their creations.
Wang Yi’s works have already been widely exhibited including in group shows at MoCA Pavilion (Shanghai, China), at the Mingyuan Art Museum (Shanghai, China), at the Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum (Chengdu, China), at Boxes Art Space (Shenzhen, China), at the SPSI Art Museum (Shanghai, China) and at the Ningbo Museum of Art (Ningbo, China).
With special thanks to Galerie Ceysson & Bénetière of artist Claude Viallat for supporting the exhibition.
