BERNAR VENET
Bernar Venet is a French Conceptual artist known for his curved, mathematically precise metal sculptures, and for his material exploration of coal, asphalt, and tar. “My work is self-generated. Nothing around me serves as a particular inspiration,” Venet said of his art. “I work, and I make discoveries while remaining open-minded to anything that might present a new possibility in the context of my work; this framework looks to enlarge its scope as a result of new formal and conceptual discoveries.” Born on April 20, 1941 in Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, the painter and sculptor studied at La Villa Thiole in Nice in 1958 for a year before pursuing a career as an artist. Friends with Arman, Jean Tinguely, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt, Venet worked within Minimalist and Conceptualist modes during the 1960s and 1970s. Awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur in 2005, in 2012 he collaborated with the car manufacturer Bugatti to create a unique piece which was debuted at the Rubell Family Collection at Art Basel Miami. The artist established the Venet Foundation in 2014, which serves as a museum and archive of his oeuvre. He currently lives and works between New York, NY and Le Muy, France. Venet’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.
