Galerie Lelong & Co.
Noir & Blanc
Jaume Plensa , Spain
©Jaume Plensa. Photo : FotoGasull. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
When asked which artists have inspired him the most, Jaume Plensa names musicians, playwrights, and poets. The sentence he quotes most often, "One thought fills immensity" (William Blake, Proverbs of Hell) is for him a definition of sculpture. As a sculptor, he has appropriated the four Parisian spaces of the Galerie Lelong & Co. around a title in French, Noir & Blanc.
In the large gallery on Tehran Street, portraits in pure white marble contrast with others in black granite. It is a kind of chess game that is played here, where the different pieces of the two colors answer each other and create an invisible architecture. The artist has also thought of the keys of a piano, where the blacks are distinguished from the whites and yet combine harmonious chords.
In the space of the Avenue Matignon, two portraits of young women have been freed from blocks of alabaster with earthy tones, and face each other. The faces are covered with white paint that highlights their softness, and contrasts violently with the rough stone visible on the back. In the back room, a series of small, dark bronze portraits are lined up one behind the other. As is often the case with Plensa, light plays a crucial role in bringing a dramatic dimension.
Noir & Blanc also evokes the elemental contrast of drawing, and it is a suite of inks on Japanese paper that the artist has chosen for the small exhibition room called the "Salon".
In the bookstore, the space devoted to prints, he presents a set of recent engravings and digital prints.
Jaume Plensa, born in Barcelona in 1955, has in recent months inaugurated very important sculptures in public spaces in London ("We" The Shard/London Bridge station) and across the street in Manhattan ("Water's Soul" Newport, New Jersey). For the new Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park building in Grand Rapids (USA), he created four huge bas-reliefs in white marble, 6 meters high and 108 meters long. Several exhibitions are scheduled in Europe in 2022: at the Musée d'Art Moderne in Céret (March 5 - June 6, 2022), at the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (April 1 - November 1), at the Musée Picasso in Antibes (June 10 - September 25), at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, United Kingdom (June 10 - October 30, 2022), and at the Fundación Bancaja, Valencia, Spain (late 2022).
A monograph devoted to Jaume Plensa's drawings is in preparation and will be published by Skira in June 2022.
A collection of four texts by Catherine Millet on Jaume Plensa, Le Silence du scribe, is published by Galerie Lelong & Co. in May 2022.
Rendez-Vous
Friday 20 May 2022 at 3:00 pm
Signature of the book “Jaume Plensa, The Silence of the Scribe”, by Catherine Millet and Jaume Plensa
Friday 20 May 2022 at 6:00 pm
Opening – Jaume Plensa / Noir & Blanc
Paris, France 13 Rue de Téhéran
75008 Paris, France 0145631319 www.galerie-lelong.com/fr
The gallery
Galerie Lelong & Co. is located in Paris and New York. It was founded by Jacques Dupin, Daniel Lelong and Jean Frémon.
The Paris gallery has been exhibiting recent works from artists of international standing since 1981. The 1980s were notable for artists who went on to become household names, including Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Eduardo Chillida, Jan Dibbets, Donald Judd, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Jannis Kounellis, Arnulf Rainer, Nicola De Maria and Jan Voss.
In the 1990s, the gallery hosted artists who represented major movements in contemporary art: Sean Scully, Günther Förg, Andy Goldsworthy, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Antonio Saura. The gallery also increased international recognition of the work of Ana Mendieta.
Since the turn of the century, Galerie Lelong has accentuated the geographical and expressive diversity of its artists: from sculpture and objects by David Nash, Wolfgang Laib, Kiki Smith, Rebecca Horn, Barry Flanagan to installations by Barthélémy Toguo, without forgetting painting, namely David Hockney, Robert Motherwell, Kate Shepherd, Nalini Malani, Nancy Spero, Juan Uslé, Leon Kossoff. More recently Samuel Levi Jones, Marc Desgrandchamps, Etel Adnan, Leonardo Drew and Fabienne Verdier.
Galerie Lelong has a large publishing department which produces and distributes engravings, lithographs, digital prints and multiple objects, and collates these works in catalogues raisonnés.
With Jaume Plensa and the Fondation Dubuffet, the gallery produces monumental sculptures for public spaces and private clients.
The gallery is present at the leading international contemporary art fairs : Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Fiac, Frieze London, Frieze New York, Arco Madrid, Art Brussels, Art Antwerpen, Miart, Paris Photo and Luxembourg Art Week.
Gallery artists
Etel Adnan • Pierre Alechinsky • James Brown • Eduardo Chillida • Nicola De Maria • Marc Desgrandchamps • Leonardo Drew • Jean Dubuffet • Barry Flanagan • Günther Förg • Andy Goldsworthy • Jane Hammond • David Hockney • Rebecca Horn • Jean-Baptiste Huynh • Samuel Levi Jones • Phillip King • Konrad Klapheck • Jiri Kolàr • Jannis Kounellis • Nalini Malani • Ana Mendieta • Henri Michaux • Joan Miró • David Nash • Ernest Pignon-Ernest • Jaume Plensa • Arnulf Rainer • Ursula von Rydingsvard • Sean Scully • Kate Shepherd • Kiki Smith • Nancy Spero • Antoni Tàpies • Barthélémy Toguo • Juan Uslé • Fabienne Verdier • Jan Voss
