Monique Frydman

“I would like something like the Orée (dawn) of the world for my paintings.” It was Monique Frydman who uttered these words on 2 December 1988, found in her workshop notebooks when they were published this year*.

This autumn, Galerie Dutko has the honour of presenting the work of Monique Frydman for the first time. On the occasion of this first personal exhibition in Galerie Dutko – Ile Saint-Louis, three new series of works will be presented: les Rives (2019), L’Orée (2019), Les Aubes (2019).

A major artist in abstract painting, Monique Frydman has often evoked the time of the paintwork and of the painting in her work. When does a work begin? At dawn (Orée), like something that is being born, is dilating, midway between desire and mastery. In the work of Monique Frydman, the issue always touches on the time of the paintwork, and the time of the painting. While this question was raised with the artist in 1988, it is still topical in her activity. 

These series are particularly impregnated with what she sees, perceives and feels in the perpetual variations in light, colours and vibrations of the landscape that surround her workshop. This powerful source of inspiration, which has become an obvious fact to which she is extremely sensitive, is metamorphosed and revealed in the abstraction of the artist’s pictorial language. 

Monique Frydman’s landscapes are thus constructed and deconstructed over time. They become a mise en abymeof the internal landscapes, reflecting part of her history and the history of the painting itself on the canvas. 

Monique Frydman’s work has been presented at many institutions including the Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art in London, UK; the Bonnard Museum, Le Cannet, France; the Louvre Museum in Paris, France; the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan; La Verrière – Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès in Brussels, Belgium; the Matisse Museums in Le Cateau-Cambrésis and in Nice, France; the Bouvet Ladubay Contemporary Art Centre in Saint-Hilaire-Saint-Florent, Saumur, France; the Fine Arts Museum of Tourcoing, France; the Museum of Brou, Bourg-en-Bresse, France and the Museum of Modern Art, Céret, France

Her works are also present in several major collections, including those of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan; the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Pompidou in Paris; the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel; the Fine Arts Museum of Caen, France; the Toulon Art Museum, France; the Sainte-Croix Abbey Museum in Sables d’Olonne, France; the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain of Paris; the Frac des Pays de la Loire; the Frac in Champagne-Ardenne; the Frac in Franche-Comté; the Frac in Île-de-France; the Museum of Modern Art and Contemporary Creationof Toulouse, France; the Contemporary Art Museum of Vitry-sur-Seine, France; the Auditorium of Flaine, France