October 04, 2024 - January 12, 2025
From the most renowned members to those less well known to the general public, the artists of the European avant-garde shared a common creative desire. That of a universal visual language rooted in architecture and industrial aesthetics.
Shape-Space-Form-Faktura presents a selection of remarkable works by artists including Kasimir Malevich - an artist who continues to inspire Lee Ufan - alongside Henryk Berlewi, Ilya Chashnik, Lajos Kassák, Katarzyna Kobro, El Lissitzky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Peter Laszlo Peri, Sergei Senkin, Władysław Strzemiński
This historic first Lee Ufan exhibition in Arles illustrates both Lee Ufan's interest in and inspiration by Malevich and avant-garde artists, and the desire to present major works from the Suprematist and Constructivist currents for the first time in Arles.
The artists in the exhibition Shape-Space-Form-Faktura have in common that they have abandoned figurative representation in art, using non-objective abstract imagery as a kind of universal visual language, capable of transcending national identity and cultural specificity.
Using a finite set of shapes - the circle, the square, the triangle, the line, etc. - the artists explored limitless possibilities. - artists explored limitless possibilities and were welded by their interest in incorporating the textural nature of different materials, such as wood, plaster, metal or paint mixed with sand.
This was known as FAKTURA.
At the start of the 20th century, with the outbreak of the First World War, what is generally known as abstract art made a major detour from its historical origins. Artists began to create works devoid of any obvious reference to the world of appearances.
Kasimir Malevich was its pioneer, claiming art's ability to evoke pure states of feeling - what he called Suprematism - provoked only by the arrangement of minimal forms that subvert the idea of narrative imagery.
Inspired by his example, the artists featured in this exhibition have both imitated and surpassed the aspirations of Suprematism. By experimenting with new materials and processes, they extended the credo of pure form beyond the constraints of painting. This more rational approach is known as constructivism.
Top image: Kassák Lajos Dinamikus konstrukció, [Dynamic construction] 1922-24 © Petőfi Literary Museum - Kassák Museum, Budapest