Martin BARRÉ (1924-1993) - Lot 56

Martin BARRÉ (1924-1993) Composition (1956) Oil on canvas, signed and dated 1956 lower left 81 x 64.5 cm Provenance - Contemporary Art sale, Artcurial, July 1, 2003 - Private collection A major figure in French constructed abstraction and conceptual art, Martin Barré began a radical quest for space and emptiness in the 1950s. This rare work from 1956, a key period in his production, perfectly illustrates his initial research, in which white is the central, sovereign element of the composition. Far from being a simple background, this dominant white becomes the very matter of the painting, a space of pure tension where the line ventures forth with a fascinating economy of means. From the 1950s onwards, the white background (often a linen canvas covered with a white coating or white paint) became his absolute point of departure. He sought to destroy the classical notion of "background" and "subject". For him, white is not emptiness, it's active space. He applies his lines or shapes directly to this white background to see how they cut into it. Then, in the 1970s and 1980s, he worked on very rigorous series (such as the famous "91" series) based on grids and geometric displacements, often in square formats. Our 1956 painting is therefore at the very beginning of this fascinating artistic adventure based on minimalism and the purity of white.