Curator: Ferran Martínez Sancho
9 November 2013 – 13 April 2014
The exhibition Jacques villeglé. The walls have the word presents an anthology of works by this famous french artist, spanning from 1947 to 2008, which highlight the lines that have marked and distinguished his career.
The show is divided into two parts. room 2 presents a collection of 23 affiches lacérées, created between 1958 and 2000, while room 3 exhibits examples of his sociopolitical alphabets and hypergraphics, in addition to his very first works. On display in room 1 is a selection from the Foundation’s permanent collection.
ROOM 2. THE AFFICHES LACÉRÉES
Jacques Villeglé, one of the great names in 20th century art, has developed a new and radical artistic language over a timespan of more than 60 years. Since 1949, he has collected the remains of advertising posters from the walls of Paris and other cities. Pieces of paper torn by anonymous hands that bear witness to citizens’ primitive, infantile reaction to the colonization of urban landscape itself by propaganda, the relentless transmitter of consumer goods. The result is the affiche lacérée, the ripped or lacerated poster, that Villeglé, practically without adding or removing anything, turns into a work of art.
This work focuses on the poetic value of the illegible. Their original images and phrases having disappeared and along with them, their message and meaning, what is left now is unrecognizable; it´s something new, something defiant, that challenges the spectator to find the beauty of these shapes created by chance and saved by the artist. His intervention also re-poses the role of the creator and of his sources of inspiration and replaces the traditional artist’s studio with the street as a workplace.
ROOM 3. THE SOCIOPOLITICAL ALPHABETS AND HYPERGRAPHICS
Room 3 is dedicated to another type of work which is very different formally, but not in its concept. They are the sociopolitical alphabets from 2008 and the hypergraphics, created between 1981 and 2009.
Jacques Villeglé says that “la vue d’un artiste doit commencer par la flânerie”, that is, the view or vision of an artist must start with meandering. Loyal to this stance, he discovers other signs on city walls: the graffiti, also anonymous, formed by typographical letters and signs that reinforce the political or social meaning of the message. As of this moment, in 1969, Villeglé begins a new collection with which he makes the alphabets. They are the tools that allow him to create his hypergraphics, poetic texts somewhere between reflections and prophecy, with his own personal thoughts or those from other sources, which demand close observation from the spectator in order to be deciphered.
The show is completed with the artist´s first work from 1947, examples of lettrist experiments done between 1950 and 1953 and a series of masterful photographs by François Poivret revolving around Villeglé.
ROOM 1. SELECTION FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
Room 1 at the Stämpfli Foundation – Contemporary Art Museum houses a selection of works from the Foundation’s permanent collection, put together by Serge Lemoine. The 11 artists represented in this room share the same connection with figurative painting, whether they are stylized, cropped and recomposed images of reality (Peter Klasen), enlarged details that transfigure reality (Peter Stämpfli), dreamed representations (Jacques Monory), social themes (Antonio Seguí), futuristic visions (Erró) or allegorical figures (Bernard Rancillac).
Room 1 Artists: EDUARDO ARROYO, GIANNI BERTINI, HENRI CUECO, ERRÓ, GÉRARD FROMANGER, PETER KLASEN, JACQUES MONORY, BERNARD RANCILLAC, ANTONIO RECALCATI, ANTONIO SEGUÍ, PETER STÄMPFLI
Jacques Villeglé. The walls have the word. Works: https://www.flickr.com/photos/fundaciostampfli/sets/72157637299016665/
Jacques Villeglé. The walls have the word. The exhibition https://www.flickr.com/photos/fundaciostampfli/sets/72157637443313634/