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REVIEWS BERTRAND – NEMOURS
ODE BERTRAND endash.cap AURELIE NEMOURS
GALERIE5213, BERLIN
31 MARCH – 4 MAY
Ode Bertrand – Aurélie Nemours, 2007 (installation view). Courtesy Galerie5213, Berlin
The exhibition Ode Bertrand – Aurélie Nemours presents a rare overview or shifting one slightly out of sync. It is almost impossible not to see these
of geometric abstraction in France through the work of two of its most squares in movement or as spatial representations.
prominent representatives, combining a small retrospective of the late Bertrand’s newest series, Ahura (2007), continues the process of
Aurélie Nemours (1910–2005) with a selection of recent work by her variation and her growing interest in colour. From a distance these paintings
student and long-time assistant Ode Bertrand. look like a sequence of wide white lines on a black grounding, outlining
The exhibition sets of_f with Nemours’s Temps Premier XY (1975): parts of a square and a rhombus. There seems to be some structure within
a white canvas in a simple white wooden frame. White, nothing else – but the black paint, though that is almost invisible. From nearby, however, and
after looking at it for some time, one realises variations in the application viewed from dif_f erent angles, the black becomes colour, and the dif_f erent
of the oil paint, slightly dif_f erent brush strokes and subtle changes in tone, shades outline geometric shapes. The basic drawing is that of a rhombus in
all depending on the angle of view. In fact, the painting consists of nine a system of regular squares. For each of the paintings certain lines have been
shades of white, in a grid of three-by-three squares. Elsewhere in the moved around and the resulting shapes painted in. The colours were made
gallery, three of her last paintings, Monochrome Bleu, Monochrome Vert by mixing pigment into black paint, creating luscious shades that almost
and Monochrome JV (all 1995) demonstrate a further reduction of means, glow when the light hits them from one angle, and appear black otherwise.
as each of the small square canvases is painted in a single bright colour Thus the colours in Ahura I .V. (2007) can be quite undistinguishable, while a
– a long way from Rythme et Signe II (1951), in which geometric coloured step to one side turns them into strong dark tones of olive and blue. On this
shapes are separated by thick black lines, reminiscent of stained-glass grounding, Bertrand set her white lines, a drawing that follows these shapes
windows. but adds also another level, as these are so decidedly blank that when they
Though Ode Bertrand follows similar principles, her approach is are set at the edge of the painting they seem not to be part of the painting
much more playful and varied. While Nemours, in La Couronne (1977), at all. The boundaries of the paintings disappear, and they not only extend
statically outlines a single square with a thin black line on the white canvas, the possibility of their pattern across the wall but, through their changeable
Bertrand, in Dédale XIII, XV, XVII and XXIII (all 2005), arranges her squares visual presence, organise the viewers’ physical approach to them, and to the
in groups, using a basic grid of two-by-two, but then superimposing another space both they and the viewer inhabit. Axel Lapp
p147-161 Reviews AR Jun07.indd 15 9/5/07 02:35:31
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