Solutions imaginaires

Barry Flanagan (1941-2009) is, like most great artists, difficult to classify. A sculptor, artist, engraver, installer, he practiced the subtle and adroit art of the contrary. This led him to an early interest in the  ‘Pataphysics of Alfred Jarry, this “science of imaginary solutions”, eventually becoming a member of the
Collège de ‘Pataphysique and naming his son Alfred.

Well versed in art history and particularly in sculpture, Flanagan had the talent to evoke it with liberty and virtuosity, by unexpected associations (boomerang and anvil, animal and skyscraper, a surprising Three Graces), deceptively casual models and remarkable feats of equilibrium.

This exhibition brings together works from 1980 to 2009, where we find the famous hare that was a fetish of Flanagan’s – in the position of Le Penseur by Rodin, as a bounding hare-unicorn, as a musician, a juggler, but also dragons, bells, a crescent moon and a dog.This exhibition is organisated in collaboration with The Estate of Barry Flanagan.

A catalogue will be published with a text by Didier Semin.