From 11th Juin to 11 th December 2016
Based on a small retrospective, the Parcours 1961 – 2016 exhibition includes thirty pieces dating from 1961 to present and are characteristic of Peter Klasen’s way of doing things, based on the use of his own codes to show the fragility of our society.
The first room, on the ground floor, is dedicated to the pieces from the 60s-90s in the 20th century, and are representative of Peter Klasen’s work as a pioneer in the art of narrative figuration about Western society’s most important issues. Exhibited in the second room, downstairs, are the pieces from the 90s to present that transport us to other topics that interest the artist, like our environment’s mechanized society or a series of Lost Landscapes, a tribute to masters that Klasen maintains a dialogue with, like Gaspar David Friedrich, Fernand Léger or Tintoretto.
Born in Lubeck (Germany) in 1935, Peter Klasen lives and works in Paris since 1959. A committed, defiant artist, his works evoke the industrial society, the consumer society, a flat world that the artist represents with different signs and objects. A prominent artist in narrative figuration, Klasen represents the sharp, demanding consciousness of contemporary life.
His work expresses concerns and gathers symptoms, with which he arouses reflection and releases the imaginary. Peter Klasen has developed his pictorial vocabulary through the appropriation of photography. At the same time that he reinterprets collages and photos via airbrushing, for his creations he draws inspiration from the signs and codes of urban reality. The intention that motivates Klasen’s research and work and the use of his favorite material underline the ambivalence of contemporary society, two aspects that are inseparable and contrary at the same time: on the one hand, fascination as a driving force and the seduction its efficiency exerts and, on the other, the obvious dangers or the secrets it conceals.
His work has been the object of numerous public commissions, like mural frescoes for the SNFC’s Musée d’Orsay station (1987), for the Forum des Halles in Paris, for the Lille City Hall (1988) and for the La Défense parking lot, as well as a silkscreen print for the bicentennial of the Revolution (1989) and monumental sculptures for Portugal and China, among others.
His pieces have been exhibited all over the world and are a part of numerous public collections, notably at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, The Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna, the Tel Aviv Art Museum and the Hara Contemporary Art Museum in Tokyo.
Schedule:
From 11 to 30 June and from 1 to 31 October
Friday: 5pm to 7pm.
Saturday and Sunday (including holidays): 11am to 2pm and 5pm to 7pm
From 1 July to 30 September
Wednesday, Thrusday and Friday: 5pm to 8pm
Saturday and Sunday (including holidays): 11am to 2pm and 5pm to 8pm
From 1 November to 11 December
Friday: 4pm to 7pm
Saturday and Sunday (including holidays): 11am to 2pm and 4pm to 7pm
