On the occasion of the launch of the website (denis-malartre.fr) in tribute to Denis Malartre, former member of the Viva agency, the Elda Mazer Gallery presents his photographs taken from 1986 to 1988, called “Objectales”.
It was at the age of 34, following a trip to New York – and his discovery of the links that may exist between Manhattan and the painting of certain abstract expressionists – that Denis Malartre broke with the instant photo that he had been practicing for more than fifteen years. He then embarked on a plastic experimentation with photography, “in the chamber”, bordering on abstraction.
“I close the window to see more clearly and take the photograph as an object. A sort of object relation. ”, he wrote shortly after his return to Paris.
The 22 Objectales exhibited today, resulting from a theoretical reflection close to the French pictorial movement Supports/Surfaces, “tell the constituents, one could say the organs, of an image”, in a desire to free photography from its narrative and imaginary dimension.
White stripes or glued papers, neutral light, reduced depth of field – “little sharpness so little description” – these images, by his own admission, “speak of the illusionism of space”. Like Denis Malartre, we see “here and there a space in motion (which come forward, retreats then flattens out), […] the evolution of values (the grays coming forward, the whites moving away), infinitely simple data that is not, strangely, devoid of emotion. ”
“Sometimes sensuality, a certain romanticism, impregnates the image.”
The site, completed in 2020, constitutes a catalog raisonné of Denis Malartre’s work, with some 550 images: photographs (digitized by the Dupon Phidap laboratory), drawings, paintings, typographical research, texts reflecting on photography and painting.
The works presented at the Elda Mazer Gallery are analogue prints on Baryté Ilford paper, produced by the Picto laboratory. Editions limited to twelve copies, all formats combined. Frames made by Atelier Demi-Teinte, with anti-reflective glass.
© Juliette Rouillon Malartre
Practical information
“Objectales” by Denis Malartre
Exhibition from September 17 to October 18, 2020
Elda Mazer Gallery – 51 rue Daguerre – Paris 75014
Tuesday to Saturday 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.
and by appointment (06 11 88 81 55)
Opening on September 17 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Information
Galerie Elda Mazer
51 rue Daguerre, 75014 Paris, France
September 17, 2020 to October 18, 2020
