Bernard Quentin (born In 1923) - Abstract Composition, 1960

Bernard Quentin (born in 1923)
Abstract composition, 1960
Pen and Indian ink on paper
Signed and dated “60” below right
Annotated “dec 59” on the back
Dimensions of the work: 20.3 x 25.7 cm
Dimensions of the frame: 30 x 40 cm

Born in the Somme in 1923, Bernard Quentin moved to Paris at the age of seventeen where he followed his first training at the School of Decorative Arts before joining the School the fine Arts. Active in the resistance between 1942 and 1944, he resumed plastic arts lessons after the war and anchored in the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés where he shared a good time with the actress Juliette Greco. Both are part of the band at Boris Vian and frequent the existentialist and surrealist environments of the post-war period. Bernard Quentin exhibited for the first time in 1945 at the Maison de l'Université in Paris, then on several occasions at the Galerie Aimé Maeght with the group “Les Mains Éblouies” bringing together, among others, Joan Miro and Alberto Giacometti.

Bernard Quentin is part of the Lettrist movement, avant-garde movement initiated in 1945 by Isidore Isou, poet and painter close to André Breton and Tristan Tzara. Initially fascinated by the way in which Paul Klee reworked the graphic characters from ancient writings in a stylistic medium, Bernard Quentin was also interested in the letter and the sign. The artist very early questions the plastic specificities of writing by drawing on primitive calligraphies such as Egyptian hieroglyphics and rock inscriptions in the Alps. He elaborates a so-called scriptural art where words prove to be the very subject of the painting.

The pen drawing that we offer dates from this period, between 1961 and 1963, during which Bernard Quentin made his writings, signs and graffiti. At the same time, the artist, present at the Olivetti Research Center in Milan where he finds Yves Klein and Arman, moves his field of work from painting to IT by carrying out his first research on a computer. Salvador Dali calls him “a pioneer of cybernetic art and electronic writing”. Bernard

Quentin is also known for his work as a designer, since he presented the first inflatable seats in 1963, which were then mass produced by the Milan group Adamoli from 1966.

Public collections
Paris, Center Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne
Marseille , Musée Cantini
Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Exhibitions: Brussels, 1958 / Montreal, 1967 / Osaka, 1970 Personal exhibitions: Paris, Galerie Aimé Maeght, 1950 / Paris, Galerie Mai, 1950 / Amiens, Maison de la Culture, 1990 / Paris, Musée de La Poste, 2007 Monumental works in public space: New-York / Chicago / Rome / Marrakech