One day, in the 1990s, Francis Limérat bought… 1 million matches! Since then, the artist has made a number of works of art from these sticks – without the sulfur head, of course.
Some of them can be found at the Convergences gallery where Valérie Grais offers a retrospective of half a century (1972-2022) of the artist's work, whose creations appear in numerous private and public collections (museum of modern art in Paris, Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux Museum of Fine Arts, etc.).
“The match corresponds to the elementary stage of learning,” says this modest proponent of the art who happily works with pruning shears on twigs and branches.
Francis Limérat, Convergences gallery
At the gallery on rue des Coutures-Saint-Gervais, it is also his drawings which occupy the majority of the two floors. Like his matchstick compositions, these are disarmingly simple – an original purity, one should say, which owes much to the primitive arts of Oceania.
His line of black ink, drawn on paper rubbed with emery cloth, is inspired by that of the traditional cartographers of Micronesia, Melanesia or the Marshall Islands. To indicate to their descendants fish areas and dangerous currents, fishermen composed unique copies of maritime maps, made using twigs, transmitted from generation to generation.
Limérat's compositions have a mysterious force of nature and the finesse of Japan or the aesthetics of white, with its shades of gray, constitutes a genre in itself, as it is wonderfully described in one of Limérat's bedside books. the artist: In Praise of the Shadow, by Junichirô Tanizaki (1933).
It's no surprise, then, that Francis Limérat's works made buyers snap like twigs on the evening of the opening.
Drawings 1972/2022 until November 12, 2022
▼ Francis Limérat
▼ Convergences Gallery
22 Rue des Coutures Saint-Gervais, 75003 Paris
From Tuesday to Saturday
14AM - 19PM
Tel. : 06 24 54 03 09
Francis Limérat, Convergences gallery
24.10.22
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS A MUST SEE
The Marais Crossings 2024: surprises and emotions (from 13/15 to 09/XNUMX)
From September 13 to 15, 2024, Le Marais celebrates the 10th anniversary of its cultural festival “Les Traversées du Marais”. Under the theme of “Surprise”, this anniversary edition promises to shake up the senses and certainties of strollers, in a district where history rubs shoulders with the avant-garde.
The cardboard forest at Galleria Continua
The Galleria Continua is an exhibition hall, a café, a bookstore and a grocery store covering eight hundred square meters. This Italian gallery which thrives in Tuscany and Rome opened in Paris in 2021. It is currently exhibiting the works of Eva Jospin, daughter of Lionel, for the first time in this gallery in the Marais.
With the artist Malacarne, we dive into the Big Blue
Why go to the sea when you can find it in le Marais, at the Menouar gallery, rue du Parc-Royal? Here, we dive directly into the Big Blue with the work of Malacarne, a post-impressionist artist of reflection, light and water whose brush caresses the surface of the sea.
NOW ON LE MARAIS MOOD
The Marais Crossings 2024: surprises and emotions (from 13/15 to 09/XNUMX)
From September 13 to 15, 2024, Le Marais celebrates the 10th anniversary of its cultural festival “Les Traversées du Marais”. Under the theme of “Surprise”, this anniversary edition promises to shake up the senses and certainties of strollers, in a district where history rubs shoulders with the avant-garde.
Heritage Days 2024: the secrets of the Marais
Le Marais, an architectural showcase of historic Paris, is preparing to reveal its hidden treasures during the 2024 Heritage Days. This district, once a marshland that became a stronghold of the nobility in the XNUMXth century, is home to an exceptional density of private mansions and historic buildings, silent witnesses to the splendor of yesteryear.
Private cruise on the Seine: a perfect moment
Like the Olympic athletes at the opening ceremony, Le Marais Mood embarked on a cruise on the Seine. But for a private cruise, in a small group (six passengers), with champagne on tap. This is what Green River Cruises offers for 450 euros for a one and a half hour cruise.
