Galerie Christophe Gaillard is delighted to present an
exhibition dedicated to French artist Eric Baudart (b.1972).
Eric Baudart’s artistic practice is above all intuitive. Fascinated by the physicality of the world and the things that surround him Eric Baudart is particularly drawn to reappropriating objects that find themselves at the end of their functional lives. Apart from providing an overview of his work created over the last couple of years we are presenting a previously unseen series specifically produced for this exhibition.
— « Toujours plus fine la mouture toujours plus fine »
Why is there something rather than nothing? A very mediocre pupil artistic practice and tinkering were quickly able to put aside the rigour of science and philosophy which were too off-putting for my taste. Here I was at the Beaux-Arts where Warhol Agnès Martin and above all the works and writings of the Myth makers cohabited in the beautiful Belgian flea market that was my head. My work was already questioning the reality of the world its physicality and/or its mental representation. It’s here in this aspect of my sensitive relationship with the world that something is happening. But this ‘physical thing’ is nothing other than the space that stimulates me. And because it’s art that interests me I can safely say that my work has very little to do with physics. There are very few things: space life death my deafening determination.My job is to be attentive and alert. Essentially it boils down to bringing together and optimising the conditions favourable to the emergence of a form of an idea. In this respect managing day-to-day life and time is the most important thing. A detailed description of this daily routine would be of no help to you: getting up getting dressed watching television reading sleeping wandering and above all doing nothing. In a sense I wait for things to fall from the sky. The exercise consists in not missing these things like Richard Serra who in his video “hand catching lead” tries to catch the lead sheets that fall at regular intervals with his hand. To do something is to experience its ‘relevance’. You could say it’s proving its very existence. I then live with this work intermittently and I end up validating it or not this is the space of the studio. The object created must appear to me as a given. It’s not important to me to ‘understand’ the meaning of the object or at least to put it into words. On the contrary I maintain a distance between the form and the words. I don’t know to what extent words and language are part of my work. What I do believe is that they are tedious and weaken a fragile mental process. I’m interested in how things are shaped and in the laws that govern them. But while I like to understand and grasp things what interests me even more is releasing the potential of the things around me creating the conditions for a ‘dazzling synthesis’. And ultimately it doesn’t matter how realistic things are.
Eric Baudart has been the subject of major institutional exhibition such as the Centre d’Art Contemporain d’Ivry - Le Crédac Ivry-sur- Seine (FR) 2023 Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard Paris (FR) 2011 La Verrière - Fondation d’entreprise Hermès Brussels (BE) 2008 MARTA Herford Museum Herford (DE) 2006. His work has also been shown in group exhibitions at the Bass Museum of Art Miami (USA) 2015 Le Petit Palais Paris (FR) 2008 and MAMCO - Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain Geneva (CH) 2007.
His works are present in various collections such as Lafayette Anticipations - Fondation d’entreprise Galerie Lafayette Paris (FR) MAC/VAL Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne Vitry-sur- Seine (FR) CNAP - Centre National d’Art Contemporain Paris (FR) FRAC Artothèque Nouvelle Aquitaine Limoges (FR) Museum of Fine Art Boston (US) MAMCO - Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain Geneva (CH) ...
The artist has been awarded numerous prices such as the Meurice Prize for Contemporary Art (2010) the Campari Prize (2007) and the Gilles Dusein Prize (2002).
His works are present in various collections such as Lafayette Anticipations - Fondation d’entreprise Galerie Lafayette Paris (FR) MAC/VAL Musée d’art contemporain du Val-de-Marne Vitry-sur- Seine (FR) CNAP - Centre National d’Art Contemporain Paris (FR) FRAC Artothèque Nouvelle Aquitaine Limoges (FR) Museum of Fine Art Boston (US) MAMCO - Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain Geneva (CH) ...
The artist has been awarded numerous prices such as the Meurice Prize for Contemporary Art (2010) the Campari Prize (2007) and the Gilles Dusein Prize (2002).
