May 19 - September 10, 2016 | Opening Reception: May 19, 2016 – 6 to 9 pm The Jules Maeght Gallery presents Signed and Numbered, a group exhibition of original works and limited edition prints and sculptures by a diverse international group of both emerging and established artists, including Sharaine Bell, Eduardo Chillida, Jean Cortot, Marco Del Re, Luc Doerflinger, Olivier Gagnère, Cécile Granier de Cassagnac, Ra’anan Levy, Dan Miller, Pierre Roy-camille, and Antoni Tàpies.
The relationship between the artist’s creativity and the printmaker’s métier has been integral to the Maeght family’s involvement in contemporary art since the 1930s when Aimé Maeght began his career as a printmaker. Working in the edition formats such as lithography, etching, ceramics or silk scarves allows artists to not only employ alternative visual languages and media but to work with a specialist in the respective technique. This unique marriage between the specialist’s knowledge and the artist’s creativity, allows for new interpretations, new materials, and new surfaces, resulting in entirely original works. Signed and Numbered showcases work including paintings, lithographs, etching, ceramics and silk scarves. Large etchings by Spanish artists Eduardo Chillida and Antoni Tàpies evoke their greater oeuvre; Chillida’s Euzkadi V (1974) recalls his monumental abstract sculptural, while the heavy application of carborundum in Tàpies’ Chiffres et flèches (1976) relays his tendency to use low, repulsive material in order to reevaluate the comprehension of traditional art.
The juxtaposition of painting and lithography is best highlighted in the work of Marco Del Re, SharaineBell and Dan Miller. Where the mark making is evidently an important feature of Del Re’s acrylic on Nepalese paper Memoire del’aged’or II (2004), his lithographs show a familiar vibrancy and energy. Bell and Miller’s work demonstrates a different sort of orderly chaos, the former restraining images of natural disaster to the picture plane while the latter draws and paints words repeatedly until the letters themselves are layered to the point that they are indistinguishable from one another.
Signed and Numbered introduces numerous artists from the Galerie Maeght in Paris; including Oliver Gagnère, Jean Cortot, and Ra’anan Levy. Gagnère works across multiple mediums and dimensions but is most known for his elegant ceramics. Cortot, as much a poet as a painter, incorporates word play as an additional dimension in his work while Paris based Israeli artist Levy creates extraordinary depth and dimension in his paintings and etchings of everyday occurrences such as hands and hallways. The trio of young French artists Luc Doerflinger, Cécile Granier de Cassagnac and Pierre Roy-camille, are featured again at the Jules Maeght Gallery, this time in a more in-depth examination of their etchings and original works.Signed and Numbered explores these visual differences in artists work by placing originals alongside editions that have been cast or printed. The goal of working in editions is neither to reproduce nor recreate an existing work; rather it is to extend the artists practice. This spring/summer 2016 exhibition at the Jules Maeght Gallery celebrates the rich Maeght family legacy of working intimately with artists and showcases this fruitful marriage with an exceptional and diverse selection of original artworks and editions.
Jules Maeght Gallery 149 Gough St. - San Francisco - CA 94102 info@julesmaeghtgallery.com - (415) 549-7046