The Christophe Gaillard Gallery presents from October the 12th to November the 20th of 2010, a major exhibition dedicated to Pierre Molinier. Constituted over more than 10 years, this collection of photographs is so far the largest one held by a gallery.
Born in 1900, Pierre Molinier, known for his highly erotically charged photographs, ambiguous images of androgyny and fetishism, stagings of himself and of body images, was engaged in a relentless pursuit of this perfect image that he wanted so much to resemble. Even as in 1956 he exhibits his paintings at Andre Breton's gallery, L'Étoile Scellée, Pierre Molinier practices photography. The exhibition will therefore start with a rare inaugural series, Les Filles magiques : some were reproduced in the revue Le surréalisme, même.
From the 60s, in his cramped apartment in Bordeaux, the artist moves into a demiurge, and, from self-portraits as well as photographs of his friends whom he takes care of de-membering body parts, the shaman Molinier gives life to his creatures. He composes and recreates. Last step is photographying this collage i order to get the "ideal" image. After the exposure of these "templates" in Gallerie Kamel Mennour, what Gallerie Christopher Gaillard will present is a fantastic set of original vintage prints the Gallerie Christopher Gaillard, through the selection of twenty five collages among the rarest.
After his death (Molinier committed suicide in 1976), his work was to inspire, or be a key reference to,many contemporary artists like Cindy Sherman, Luciano Castelli, Mike Kelley and more recently Arnulf Rainer.
