To coincide with a retrospective published by Editions le bec en l’air, gallery Camera Obscura is hosting a third exhibition of Denis Brihat’s work entitled “L’Offrande visuelle”, showing a set of prints selected from his workshop including a dozen rare images from the 1960s.
Brihat’s photography is an aesthetic quest that relies on significant manual input during the development process in the laboratory, the possibilities of which he explored and extolled.
In the 1960s, he was undoubtedly the first French photographer to devote himself exclusively to photography conceived to be hung on walls, images claiming the status of art in the same way as painting. He invented the term “photographic painting” and attempted to produce single prints. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibited 116 of those prints in 1965.
In 1980, Jean Dieuzaide organised a retrospective of his work at Le Château d’eau gallery in Toulouse and asked Brihat, as an exception, to reprint these photographs , the original and unique print he no longer owned We have the privilege of presenting eleven of those prints, artist’s proofs produced in 1980, together with two unique prints, “photographic paintings” from the 1960s.
Although Brihat often made this comparison with painting, his approach was entirely photographic: his eye, his view of the world through the lens and his subsequent interpretation in the dark room formed the bases of his creation.
Brihat left Paris in the 1950s to live closer to nature, which would remain a source of inspiration and subject for his work. “As the years go by, I see that, despite having covered numerous subjects, there is an evident, recurring link: systematic study of the shapes, structures and the architecture of nature.”
A search for harmony, for an intrinsic beauty in the world around him and its visual translation into as perfect a form as possible – such is the essence of Brihat’s work, which is also a celebration, a “visual offering” composed so that we can share in his wonderment.
EXHIBITION
L’Offrande visuelle
Denis Brihat
Until January 30th, 2016
Galerie Camera Obscura
268, boulevard Raspail
75014 Paris
France
tél : + 1 45 45 67 08
http://www.galeriecameraobscura.fr
