April 2025 | Art & Culture
a DYNAMIC REAWAKENING of FRENCH AVANT-GARDE
words Alp Tekin
photos Antoine Lippens
From 14 March to 2 November 2025, the Fondation CAB in Saint-Paul-de-Vence is the stage for an electrifying exhibition that revives the spirit of the Supports/Surfaces movement alongside cutting-edge contemporary art. Curated by Hugo Vitrani—the visionary behind the Palais de Tokyo—this show spotlights a seminal chapter in French art history, breathing new life into works that shattered traditional boundaries.
Supports/Surfaces, one of the founding forces of French contemporary art, transformed the landscape of both painting and sculpture. Between 1970 and 1971, a vibrant group of artists—predominantly hailing from the south of France—joined forces to stage four groundbreaking collective exhibitions. Icons such as André-Pierre Arnal, Vincent Bioulès, Louis Cane, Marc Devade, Daniel Dezeuze, Noël Dolla, Toni Grand, Bernard Pagès, Jean-Pierre Pincemin, Patrick Saytour, André Valensi, and Claude Viallat challenged conventions by declaring themselves painters, even as their work unsettled audiences accustomed to the familiar rigidity of stretched canvases.
In Partenaires Particuliers, the exhibition acts as a fertile field—seeding the past with a dozen historic pieces that encapsulate the raw, unfiltered energy of this avant-garde movement. These works, ranging from brushless paintings to canvases folded, burnt, or reassembled, serve as a manifesto for La peinture en question, the initial declaration of a group that continually evolved, critiqued, and ultimately transcended its own boundaries. In 1969, Louis Cane, Daniel Dezeuze, Patrick Saytour, and Claude Viallat boldly asserted:
“The object of painting is painting itself, and the paintings exhibited relate only to themselves. They do not appeal to an ‘elsewhere’... They offer no escape, because the surface, through the ruptures of form that are operated upon it, prohibits the viewer’s mental projections or dreamlike ramblings.”
Adding to this rich historical tapestry, the exhibition also features an eclectic mix of works by both past and present artists from London, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Martinique, and Paris. With contributions from names like Ernest Breleur, Pierre Buraglio, Edith Dekyndt, Ladji Diaby, Miho Dohi, Torkwase Dyson, Fred Everlsey, Melinda Fourn, Kapwani Kiwanga, Renée Levi, Myriam Mihindou, Brandon Ndife, Jack O’Brien, Robert Overby, Bernard Pages, Jean-Pierre Pincement, and Hall Haus, Partenaires Particuliers promises a vibrant dialogue between eras and geographies.
