Christian Boltanski
Encyclopedia
Christian Boltanski is French sculptor, photographer, painter and film maker.
In the 1970s, Boltanski started using mainly photography for expressing form exploration of consciousness and remembering. After 1976, he started treating photography as painting, making collages of sliced photographs of still nature and everyday life banality in order to reflect collective aesthetic condition of modern civilization in ordinary, stereotypical way. As a departure from his earlier medias, he started using readymade objects. His use of small, colorful figures made from cardboard, thread and cork, transposed photographically into large picture formats, helped him creating effective theatrical compositions. These works encouraged him to start creating kinetic installations
. The Shadows (1984), consists of strong light focused on figurative shapes and forms generating mysterious environment of silhouettes in movement.
Gegenwartskunst, 1989), Boltanski filled rooms and corridors with worn clothing items as a way of inciting profound sensation of human tragedy at concentration camps. As in his previous works, objects serve as relentless reminder to human experience and suffering.
, Magasin 3 in Stockholm, the La Maison Rouge
gallery, Institut Mathildenhöhe, the Kewenig Galerie, The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
and many others.
From July 1 to September 25, 2011 museum Es Baluard
(Mallorca, Spain) will exhibit "Signatures", the installation Christian Boltanski has conceived specifically for Es Baluard
and which is focused on the memory of the workers who in the 17th Century built the walls in which the museum is placed.
Life and work
Having no formal art education, he began painting in 1958. Nevertheless, he first came to public attention in 1960 with few short films and publication of several notebooks. Both avant-garde short films and notebooks contained mutualism of both real and fictional human existence. This relation remained dominant concept to his later art. In 1970, he began experimenting with object creation from clay and from many other unusual materials (sugar and gauze). These works, some of them entitled Attempt at Reconstitution of Objects that Belonged to Christian Boltanski between 1948 and 1954 (1970-1971), consisted of flashbacks of segment of life and time, diminishing memory and human condition.In the 1970s, Boltanski started using mainly photography for expressing form exploration of consciousness and remembering. After 1976, he started treating photography as painting, making collages of sliced photographs of still nature and everyday life banality in order to reflect collective aesthetic condition of modern civilization in ordinary, stereotypical way. As a departure from his earlier medias, he started using readymade objects. His use of small, colorful figures made from cardboard, thread and cork, transposed photographically into large picture formats, helped him creating effective theatrical compositions. These works encouraged him to start creating kinetic installations
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
. The Shadows (1984), consists of strong light focused on figurative shapes and forms generating mysterious environment of silhouettes in movement.
Installation art
1988 was the year Botanski began creating mixed media/materials installations with light as essential concept. Tin boxes, altar-like construction of framed photographs (e.g. Chases School, 1986-1987), photographs of Jewish schoolchildren taken in Vienna in 1931, used asjhdsmurder of Jews by the Nazis]], all those elements and materials used in his work are used in order to represent deep contemplation regarding reconstruction of past. While creating Reserve (exhibition at Basle, MuseunGegenwartskunst, 1989), Boltanski filled rooms and corridors with worn clothing items as a way of inciting profound sensation of human tragedy at concentration camps. As in his previous works, objects serve as relentless reminder to human experience and suffering.
Exhibitions
Christian Boltanski has participated in over 150 art exhibitions throughout the world.. Among other, he had solo exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum LiechtensteinKunstmuseum Liechtenstein
The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is the state museum of modern and contemporary art in Vaduz. The building by the Swiss architects Meinrad Morger, Heinrich Degelo and Christian Kerez was completed in November 2000...
, Magasin 3 in Stockholm, the La Maison Rouge
La Maison Rouge
La Maison Rouge is a contemporary art gallery in the Marais district of Paris.-History:Created by Antoine de Galbert, he opens first a gallery in Grenoble, than the Maison Rrouge close from Bastille, in Paris. The construction was the work of Amplitude Agency and of his architect Jean-Yves Clément,...
gallery, Institut Mathildenhöhe, the Kewenig Galerie, The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme is a French museum of Jewish art and history located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan at 71, rue du Temple in the Marais district in Paris. The museum is open daily except Saturday . An admission fee is charged...
and many others.
From July 1 to September 25, 2011 museum Es Baluard
Es Baluard
Es Baluard is the museum of modern and contemporary art of Palma, Majorca, Spain.Founded on 30 January 2004, Es Baluard exhibits an important collection of contemporary art, of Balearic artists or made by those related somehow to the Balearic Islands. In addition of showing the pieces that form...
(Mallorca, Spain) will exhibit "Signatures", the installation Christian Boltanski has conceived specifically for Es Baluard
Es Baluard
Es Baluard is the museum of modern and contemporary art of Palma, Majorca, Spain.Founded on 30 January 2004, Es Baluard exhibits an important collection of contemporary art, of Balearic artists or made by those related somehow to the Balearic Islands. In addition of showing the pieces that form...
and which is focused on the memory of the workers who in the 17th Century built the walls in which the museum is placed.
Prizes
- 2007 Créateurs sans frontières award for visual arts by Cultures France
- 2007 Praemium ImperialePraemium ImperialeThe Praemium Imperiale is an arts prize awarded since 1989 by the imperial family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association in the fields painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theatre/film...
Award by the Japan Art Association - 2001 Goslarer Kaiserring, Goslar, Germany
- 2001 Kunstpreis, given by Nord/LB, Braunschweig, Germany
Further Reading
- Lynn Gumpert and Mary Jane Jacob, "Christian Boltanski: Lessons of Darkness," Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, 1988.
- Didier Semin, "Christian Boltanski," Paris, Art Press, 1988.
- Nancy Marmer, "Christian Boltanski: The Uses of Contradiction," "Art in America," October 1989, pp. 168-181, 233-235.
- Lynn Gumpert, "Christian Boltanski," Paris, Flammarion, 1944.