PRESS KIT PAINTING THE NIGHT centrepompidou-metz.fr #peindrelanuit > 13.10.18 15.04.19 2018 Paris, / ADAGP Jochen Littkemann 2018. Photo: DACS/Artimage Doig. All Rights Reserved, , 1989-90 © Peter Milky Way Peter Doig, Peter PAINTING THE NIGHT SUMMARY 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 5 2. EXHIBITION LAYOUT .............................................................................................................................. 6 3. FIVE QUESTIONS TO THE CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION .......................................... 18 4. LIST OF EXHIBITED ARTISTS ......................................................................................................... 20 5. THE CATALOGUE ..................................................................................................................................... 21 6. ASSOCIATED PROGRAMME ............................................................................................................ 23 7. THE PARTNERS ........................................................................................................................................ 29 8. PRESS IMAGES ....................................................................................................................................... 35 3 PAINTING THE NIGHT 1. INTRODUCTION PAINTING THE NIGHT From 13 October 2018 to 15 April 2019 GALERIES 2 & 3 The topic of night has infiltrated current debates With a focus on the perception of night rather than concerning society (should we open shops at night or its iconography, the exhibition intends to be, in fact, preserve that time for sleep?), the environment (how can a nocturnal experience: as visitors weave their way we limit night light pollution which prevents us from in they become night-owls, the heady atmosphere of seeing the stars and impacts natural life?), politics (the nightlife takes its hold teasing the senses, stirring the French “Nuit Debout” movement, clandestine nightly inner self inducing cosmic vertigo. One steps into the border crossings), science (we are constantly furthering exhibition as one would step out into the night. our knowledge of the phenomenon). In keeping with the spirit of Centre Pompidou-Metz Night-time, and the many questions it prompts, exhibitions, this show is not limited exclusively to has haunted artists particularly since the late 19th paintings, though these are central, for parallels and century. Thanks to such ground-breaking discoveries resonances are established with, for instance, music and as electrification and lighting, psychoanalysis and literature, as well as video and photography. The event the advent of the space age the night has evolved, groups about a hundred artists and historical figures transforming us in turn: theories have consequently (Winslow Homer, Francis Bacon, Anna-Eva Bergman, been completely reviewed changing our relationship Louise Bourgeois, Brassaï, Helen Frankenthaler, Paul to the night-tide. Klee, Lee Krasner, Henri Michaux, Joan Mitchell, Amédée Ozenfant, etc.) and contemporary artists (Etel Adnan, From 13 October 2018 to 15 April 2019, Centre Pompidou- Charbel-joseph H. Boutros, Ann Craven, Peter Doig, Metz is hosting an important exhibition featuring the Jennifer Douzenel, Rodney Graham, Martin Kippenberger, night in modern and contemporary painting along with Paul Kneale, Olaf Nicolai, Gerhard Richter, etc.) as well a catalogue and a wealth of associated events. as a number of spectacular installations, some of which were created especially for the project (Harold Ancart, A prominent source of inspiration in the history of art, Raphaël Dallaporta, Spencer Finch, Daisuke Yokota, the night continues to offer a rich field of investigation. Navid Nuur, etc.). Revisiting such a vast topic spawns numerous profound interrogations on our condition and our place in the Curator: Universe and the role Art could play. Jean-Marie Gallais, head of exhibitions, Centre Pompidou-Metz. Though at first the idea might seem paradoxical, Painting the Night (Peindre la nuit in french) is in fact heavy with meaning. The title is voluntarily ambiguous for night painting could either mean representing the night or painting at night. Painting the dark or in the dark, a choice has to be made either to improve one’s night vision or on the contrary to abandon seeing altogether. Indeed it is at night that we can, both physically and symbolically, at last “disconnect from the world”— a typically modern aspiration. Actually, twilight would be a perfect metaphor for the elusive boundary between figuration and abstraction. On the left: Léon Spilliaert, Dam and beach, Royal Villa and galeries of Ostend [Digue et plage, Chalet Royal et galeries d'Ostende], 1908-1909 © Collection privée, Courtesy Patrick Derom Gallery 5 PAINTING THE NIGHT 2. EXHIBITION LAYOUT The exhibition covers two levels, on the first “Lost in Darkness” features night-time as we know it: a moment we live through daily whether lit by the stars or a street lamp, when nightfall arouses our innermost feelings, reveals our obsessions, and conjures up our dreams. On the second level “From Intimacy to Cosmos” focusses on an abstract and cosmogonic relationship to night-time, when stars are observed. One understands the tangible aspects of the night sky and wonders where we stand in this universe. SCENOGRAPHY FOR THE EXHIBITION GALLERY 2, PAINTING THE NIGHT 11 96 5 4 11 96 5 4 8 12 10 3 8 12 10 712 3 13 712 SORTIE ENTRÉE 13 SORTIE ENTRÉSALLESE 1-3: LOST IN DARKNESS SALLES 4-6: THE NIGHT DWELLERS SALLES 7-10: NOCTURNAL OBSESSIONS GALLERY 3, FROM INTIMACY TO COSMOS SALLES 11-13: THE ETERNAL EYES 21 19 18 21 20 19 18 16 24 23 22 20 15 16 24 23 22 14 15 17 SORTIE ENTRÉE 14 17 SORTIE ENTRÉE SALLES 14-20: THE STAR EATERS SALLES 21-24: ENWRAPPED IN THE NIGHT Designed by Pascal Rodriguez, assisted by Perrine system offering the visitor a multi-sensorial experience. Villemur, the immersive scenography accompanies As for the layout of the second gallery its design is the visitor’s experience as they travel into the night. more regular with a series of open spaces including a The layout of the first gallery follows the pattern spacious room at the centre dedicated to large format of a town the visitor can wander through, at the paintings. The exhibition closes with a monumental cube opposite end they arrive at a large apse dedicated to that houses a Ambiante Spaziale by Lucio Fontana. The the world of dreams and the Surrealists’ connection bay window (gallery 3) looks onto the city and its night to the night. Aside from specific installations, the lights that can be contemplated. long corridors are equipped with a 3D audio effect 6 PAINTING THE NIGHT PAINTING THE NIGHT FIRST LEVEL (GALERIE 2) 1. LOST IN DARKNESS “In the moonlight, by the sea, or in isolated parts of the country, when plunged in bitter reflections one can see Winslow Homer, Summer Night, 1890 everything take on yellow, vague, fantastic shapes. Tree- shadows, now quickly, now slowly, run, come back, and Painting the effect, revealing the physical impact on disappear again to return in different shapes, flattening out, the spectator at night, this is the task the American sticking to the ground.” painter Winslow Homer set himself. In Summer Night, Comte de Lautréamont, The Songs of Maldoror [Les chants de Maldoror], 1890 his enigmatic masterpiece of the nocturnal genre, he combined the natural light radiating from an out of At night perceptions are altered, first and foremost vision the frame full moon, it must be huge, at least it seems is impaired resulting in, both literally and figuratively, a so from its reflection on the waves, and the artificial loss of bearings. Details are blurred, shadows begin to glow of possibly a lamp post, also off canvas, which stretch, shapes take on a dark foreboding nature and, casts onto the ground the shadows of two women as the horizon fades, the night sky looms. One must dancing. A group of on-lookers form a nebulous mass, either grope and stumble or simply surrender to the a wood flooring occupies the foreground, no doubt to elation. A number of nocturnal motifs have travelled introduce drama and acoustics to the scene. Inevitably through time, the tree for instance is a versatile subject: the viewer’s vision is shaken, he/she reels and falters in daylight its lines are sharp however as night falls as do the dancing shadows. is mass darkens to a threat; reflections on water echo the failing light, mirroring the visual distortions of nightfall: undulating, out of focus, murky; our states of mind mutate with the landscape. When entering the first room of the exhibition, the visitors step into darkness, little by little as their vision becomes accustomed to obscurity they find they are in a projection room: a video by Jennifer Douzenel shows a night sky alive with tiny fireflies like a forever shifting star chart. © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski Adrian Ghenie, The End of Romanticism, 2009 Huile sur toile, 210 x 140 cm Courtesy of P. Duménil 7 PAINTING THE NIGHT "What, in the end, makes advertisements so superior to criticism? Not what the moving red neon sign says – but the Amédée Ozenfant, Illuminated skyscraper [Gratte-ciel éclairé], fiery pool reflecting in the asphalt.” Walter Benjamin, One-Way Street, 1928 1950 Exiled in New York between 1938 and 1955, Amédée Similarly, urban scenes throughout the 20th century depict Ozenfant