France – Rennes
A pivotal decade marked by the emergence of alternative countercultures, the sixties were the scene of societal tensions and artistic investigations that profoundly and durably changed the face of Western society. Breaking with the prevailing abstraction, Pop – and Nouveau Réalisme in France – brought consumer objects, the entertainment society and advertising into the realm of the arts.
Richard Hamilton, the pioneer of Pop Art, with his collages using images from magazines, Richard Avedon with his highly unglamorous photographs of the master of the New York underground, Andy Warhol, or Marilyn Monroe. Similarly, Martial Raysse’s fluorescent portraits “explore the artifice and dreams of consumer society, on the borderline between praise and denunciation”, while Alain Jacquet’s silkscreened Déjeuner sur l’herbe challenges the status of the unique, non-reproducible work…
Even more subversive are STURTEVANT’s appropriations, carefully inaccurate reproductions of his fellow artists’ works… Michelangelo Pistoletto’s trapping mirror paintings, Niki de Saint-Phalle’s irreverent Nanas, Gilbert & George’s living sculptures and Tim Noble & Sue Webster’s light sculptures complete the colourful panorama offered by the Pinault collection, enriched for the occasion by a sixties playlist by Etienne Daho.
From The Animals to Frank Zappa, from the Beach Boys to Pierre Henry, via the incantatory rock of the Velvet Underground & Nico, the songwriter offers a selection of nearly one hundred titles. To be savoured…
STÉPHANIE DULOUT
FOREVER SIXTIES – The Spirit of the 1960s in the Pinault Collection
On view until September 10
Couvent des Jacobins
20, place Sainte-Anne, Rennes