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Jaume Plensa

JAUME PLENSA

Noir & Blanc Galerie Lelong 20 May–13 July 2022 38 Avenue Matignon, Paris
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Press Release

When Jaume Plensa is asked which are the artists who have most inspired him, he evokes musicians, playwrights, poets. The sentence he most often quotes ‘One thought fills immensity’ (William Blake, Proverbs of Hell) is in his eyes, a definition of sculpture. It is as a sculptor that he has made his the four Parisian spaces of the Galerie Lelong & Co., under a title in French: Noir & Blanc. In the larger gallery situated rue de Téhéran, pure white marble portraits contrast with others in black granite. A sort of chess-game is being played here, one in which the different pieces of the two colours answer each other, creating an invisible architecture. Also evoking, for the artist, piano keys, where the black and the white keys, although distinct from one another, combine to create harmonious chords.

At the Avenue Matignon premises, facing one another, two portraits of young women have been carved out from earthen-hued alabaster blocks. The faces have been covered with white paint, evoking smoothness a thus starkly contrasting with the rough stone visible just behind. In the last room, a series of small dark bronze portraits are aligned one behind another. As often with Plensa, light plays a crucial role by adding a dramatic touch.

The Noir & Blanc title also evokes the basic contrast of a drawing, and the artist has chosen a series of inks on Japanese paper for the small exhibition room known as the ‘salon’. In the bookshop, the gallery space allotted to prints, Plensa presents a set of recent engravings and digital impressions.

Jaume Plensa, born in Barcelona in 1955, has inaugurated, along these last months, some outstanding sculptures in the public space of London (We, The Shard/London Bridge station) as well as facing Manhattan (Water’s Soul, Newport, New Jersey, U.S.A). For the new edifice of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park at Grand Rapids (USA), he has created four gigantic low reliefs in white marble spanning a 6-meter height and total length of 108 meters.

Several exhibitions are scheduled in Europe in 2022: at Modern Art Museum of Céret (5 March –6 June), at the Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (1 April –1 November), at Picasso Museum, in Antibes (10 June–25 September), at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, U.K. (10 June–30 October), at château Sainte- Roseline vineyard, France (July 10th – September 30th), at Fundación Bancaja, Valencia, Spain (end 2022).

A monograph of Jaume Plensa’s drawings is being prepared and will be published by Skira in June 2022.

A collection of four texts by Catherine Millet on Jaume Plensa, Le Silence du scribe (The silence of the scribe) will be published by Galerie Lelong & Co. in May 2022.

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Installation Views

About the Artist

Born in 1955 in Barcelona, where he studied at the Llotja School of Art and Design and at the Sant Jordi School of Fine Arts.

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Also Exhibiting at Galerie Lelong

All Exhibitions
David Nash
DAVID NASH Catching Forms. Wood to Bronze Galerie Lelong 10 September–10 October 2026 13 Rue de Téhéran, Paris
Barthélémy Toguo
BARTHÉLÉMY TOGUO The Nomadic Studio Galerie Lelong 10 September–10 October 2026 13 Rue de Téhéran, Paris
About the Gallery
Galerie Lelong is located in Paris and New York. It was founded by Jacques Dupin, Daniel Lelong and Jean Frémon.

The Paris gallery has been exhibiting recent works from artists of international standing since 1981. The 1980s were notable for artists who went on to become household names, including Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Eduardo Chillida, Paul Rebeyrolle, Pierre Alechinsky, but also for the next generation of artists: Konrad Klapheck, Jan Dibbets, Donald Judd, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, Jannis Kounellis, Arnulf Rainer, Nicola De Maria and Jan Voss.

In the 1990s, the gallery hosted artists who represented major movements in contemporary art: Sean Scully, Günther Förg, Andy Goldsworthy, Ernest Pignon-Ernest, Antonio Saura. The gallery also increased international recognition of the work of Ana Mendieta.

Since the turn of the century, Galerie Lelong has accentuated the geographical and expressive diversity of its artists: from sculpture and objects by Jaume Plensa, David Nash, Wolfgang Laib, Kiki Smith, Rebecca Horn, Barry Flanagan to installations by Barthélémy Toguo and Lin Tianmiao, without forgetting painting, namely David Hockney, Robert Motherwell, Kate Shepherd, Nalini Malani, Nancy Spero, Juan Uslé, Leon KossoffLeon Kossoff.

Galerie Lelong has a large publishing department which produces and distributes engravings, lithographs, digital prints and multiple objects, and collates these works in catalogues raisonnés.

It produces monumental sculptures to order for public spaces and private clients.

The gallery is present at the leading international contemporary art fairs (Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel Hong Kong, Fiac Paris, Frieze London, Frieze New York, Arco Madrid, Art Brussels, Expo Chicago...).

The directors of the gallery are Jean Frémon, Daniel Lelong and Patrice Cotensin in Paris and Mary Sabbatino in New York.
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Address
38 avenue Matignon
Paris
France
Opening Hours
Tues - Sat, 11am - 7pm
(1)
Paris 38 avenue Matignon
Galerie Lelong contemporary art gallery in 38 Avenue Matignon Paris France
Galerie Lelong
38 avenue Matignon, Paris, France
+33 171 722 699
http://www.galerie-lelong.com

Opening hours
Tues - Sat, 11am - 7pm
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