Bernar Venet, born in 1941 in Château-Arnoux, is a major French sculptor and conceptual artist. Internationally recognized for his monumental Cor-Ten steel arcs and lines, he explores form, science, and the relationship of art to public space.
Drawn to drawing at a very young age, Bernar Venet was encouraged by a local artist. He studied at Villa Thiole in Nice while working as a set designer’s assistant at the Opera. During his military service in Tarascon, he experimented with tar and absolute black, laying the groundwork for his artistic radicality.
In the 1960s, he associated with the New Realists (Arman, César, Hains, Villeglé) but quickly distinguished himself with a conceptual approach.
The Conceptual Shift
In 1963, Venet created iconic works such as Heap of Coal, which has no defined form or orientation. He fully embraced conceptual art, introducing mathematics, scientific language, and logical functions as artistic materials.
In 1966, he moved to New York and developed a radical body of work, even producing sound works on magnetic tapes.
After a few years’ break in the 1970s to dedicate himself to teaching, he resumed his production in 1979 with the first Arcs, Angles, Indeterminate Lines in Cor-Ten steel.
A Universal Sculptural Work
Bernar Venet is known for his large outdoor sculptures, often installed in parks, squares, and urban spaces worldwide. He works with Cor-Ten steel, a raw and durable material, which he bends, curves, and superimposes, to saturate the space.
His works, such as 88.5 Arc x 8 or Arc of 115°5, play with the laws of gravity, tension, and dynamics. He states that he wants to “stage the material itself”. Art becomes plastic science.
Venet has exhibited at the Palace of Versailles (2011), the Denver Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, the MoMA, in Nice, New York, Seoul, etc. He has received numerous awards:
- Robert Jacobsen Prize
- François Morellet Prize
- Lifetime Achievement Award (International Sculpture Center)
In 2014, he established the Venet Foundation in Le Muy (Var), dedicated to minimal and conceptual art, with an exceptional collection (Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Dan Flavin…).
Two Works: “the Arsac Diagonal” & “Saturation”: Geometric Power
In the park of Château d’Arsac, the “work The Arsac Diagonal, manifests the” raw energy of steel. An oblique bar, it crosses the space like a fault or a suspended tension.
The Arsac Diagonal, like Saturation, are part of this rigorous and poetic quest.
This work imposes a presence that is both stable and shifting, a symbol of contained chaos and mathematical rigor. It dialogues with the wine landscape, like a geometric incision in the softness of the vines.
Bernar Venet embodies a sculpture of knowledge, tension, and material. Through his arcs, lines, and saturations, he questions pure form and its ability to express the world. The Arsac Diagonal is part of this rigorous and poetic quest.
To discover, along with other artists, on our Art & Vines page
https://chateau-arsac.com/art-contemporain-vigne-alliance-chateau-arsac/
