In 1971 François Morellet referred to the modern work of art and its reception as a “picnic area” where everyone eats what they have brought along. He added “I have reduced my intervention, my creativity and sensibility to a minimum… everything you find belongs to you as an observer”.
This exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art of Morellet’s work is the most comprehensive ever to be displayed in the UK spanning 60 years of his career. It comprises 36 works over two floors of the gallery, 20 works form a retrospective from 1949 and the remainder are from 2003 to the present day.
Morellet is now recognised as one of Europe’s most important artists of geometrical abstraction. His early work anticipated minimal art and his work from the 1960s, utilising wall painting, architectural features, sticky tape, neon lighting and other mixed media, has been an inspiration to subsequent generations of installation artists.
As his quote suggests, his works are emotionally neutral. By employing constructivist, mathematical systems he plays with our visual expectations. Planes and lines are tilted, symmetry is disrupted and geometry is altered. The result is playful, challenging and beautiful and requires the observer to engage intellectually as well as aesthetically.
This exhibition is a rare opportunity to see an overview of one of the most important and influential artists of the second half of the 20th century. It is accompanied by an 80 page catalogue including an essay by Lynn Zelevansky (Head of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art) placing Morellet’s work in its important historical context.
