La Force de l’Art at the Grand Palais

“La Force de l’Art” opens to the public from 9 May to 25 June, bringing together fifteen exhibitions for the first of a new triennial series of shows intended to restore France to the forefront of the international art scene.

“France must once again take its place as one of the most vibrant locations for contemporary creation,” the French Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, announced during his visit to Paris’s Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain on 10 October 2005. One of his proposals was to charge the culture ministry with putting contemporary French art at the heart of its events from 2006, notably through a major exhibition given over to French artists working today, who will be showcased at the Grand Palais.

Twenty years after the last Paris Biennial, everything is now in place. From 9 May 2006 the “nave” of the Grand Palais will for seven weeks host the first La Force de l’Art – a triennial event dedicated exclusively to contemporary French art in all its forms (paintings, projections, performance, installations, live music, even gastronomy…). Each of the fifteen curators will select works from a group of 200 artists to capture the diversity of the French scene. With these fifteen exhibitions rolled into one, “La Force de l’Art” can claim to rival the Tate Triennial, the Greater New York and the British Art Show as one of the great dates in the global art world calendar. The show has already become the kind of unmissable event conceived by President Georges Pompidou in 1972.

But the context has changed. “La Force de l’Art” was born of the grim realisation that contemporary French art was no longer at the centre of the international art world (see AMI, 11 October 2005). Influential until the early 1980s, it has since retreated to museums and French cultural institutions such as the DRAC, FRAC and national galleries.

Compared to the brilliant performances at auction achieved by their Anglo-Saxon, German and Chinese peers, including a number of EUR 100,000 plus sales, French artists are sparsely represented in the international catalogues and sell relatively cheaply. In 2005, of 321 auction sales over EUR 100,000 for work by artists aged under 60, not one was French. The best price was for a Pierre & Gilles photograph from 1992 entitled Lola, which went for USD 80,000 (EUR 62,500).

Most of the exhibition curators have gambled on new talent. Of the 200-odd artists represented at “La Force de l’Art” just 109 already have an auction price index. Buffet is the most expensive of the French artists on show, with a 5.5 million franc sale (EUR 838,500) in 1990 for his Le cirque, clowns musiciens, followed by César, with L’Homme de la Liberté (Silhouette du patineur en voltige), a bronze sculpture more than 5 metres in height that sold for 3 million francs (EUR 457,000) in 1999, and by Pierre Soulages, whose Peinture 86.5 x 114 cm, 17 June 1958 sold for EUR 320,000 in 2004.

TOP 50 of the artists presented at “La Force de l’Art”
Ranking by the top price at auctions

Rank Artist Price (in USD) Hammer Price / Lot Sale 1 Alexander CALDER USD 5 200 000 USD 5 200 000 : Untitled (1968) 11/11/2003 (Christie’s, New-York) 2 Bernard BUFFET USD 971 731 FRF 5 500 000 : Le cirque, clowns musiciens (1955) 13/06/1990 (Anaf, Lyon) 3 CÉSAR USD 514 800 FRF 3 000 000 : «L’Homme de la Liberté» (Silhouette du patineur en voltige) (1992) 07/02/1999 (Anaf, Lyon) 4 Pierre SOULAGES USD 389 120 EUR 320 000 : «Peinture 86,5 x 114 cm, 17 juin 1958» (1958) 27/06/2004 (Perrin-Royère-Lajeunesse (S.V.V.), Versailles) 5 Daniel BUREN USD 260 295 EUR 210 000 : Peinture aux formes variables (1965-1966) 26/04/2006 (Christie’s, Paris) 6 YAN Pei-Ming USD 258 000 HKD 2 000 000 : Autoportrait (2000) 27/11/2005 (Christie’s, Hong-Kong) 7 Victor VASARELY USD 247 520 GBP 140 000 : «Vega» (1956) 25/10/2005 (Sotheby’s, London) 8 Martial RAYSSE USD 235 243 EUR 194 560 : Sans titre (1962) 04/04/2006 (Cornette de Saint-Cyr (S.V.V.), Paris) 9 Ugo RONDINONE USD 230 000 USD 230 000 : No.69 (1996) 12/05/2005 (Phillips, de Pury & Company, New-York) 10 Giuseppe PENONE USD 203 422 EUR 170 000 : Impronta Digitale (1982) 06/10/2005 (Sotheby’s, Paris) 11 Christian BOLTANSKI USD 175 747 FRF 1 000 000 : Les Saynètes comiques – le baiser caché (1974) 18/02/1990 (Loudmer, Paris) 12 CHEN Zhen USD 175 000 USD 175 000 : Biblioteca musicale (Musical Library) (2000) 12/11/2004 (Phillips, de Pury & Company, New-York) 13 PIERRE & GILLES USD 170 000 USD 170 000 : La Madone au coeur blessé, Lio (1991) 13/11/2003 (Phillips, De Pury & Luxembourg, New-York) 14 Roman OPALKA USD 160 000 USD 160 000 : 1-oo, detail 218303-252314 description of the World (1967) 13/05/2005 (Phillips, de Pury & Company, New-York) 15 Ufan LEE USD 140 000 USD 140 000 : Untitled (1982) 31/03/2006 (Sotheby’s, New-York) 16 Annette MESSAGER USD 120 000 USD 120 000 : Untitled, from the «Mes voeux» Series (1989) 10/11/2004 (Sotheby’s, New-York) 17 Paul REBEYROLLE USD 115 993 FRF 680 000 : Composition, Homme à la jambe brisée 25/02/1990 (Galateau, Limoges) 18 François MORELLET USD 113 677 EUR 95 000 : «64 lampes, allumage avec 4 rythmes superposés» (1963) 06/10/2005 (Sotheby’s, Paris) 19 Stephan BALKENHOL USD 108 948 GBP 60 000 : Figures (1997) 24/06/2005 (Christie’s, London) 20 Bernar VENET USD 100 000 USD 100 000 : Indeterminate Line (1986) 12/05/2004 (Christie’s, New-York) 21 Jean-Pierre RAYNAUD USD 96 322 EUR 78 000 : «Pot 815» (1968) 18/07/2004 (Sotheby’s, Vence) 22 François DUFRENE USD 91 936 GBP 52 000 : «1/8 du plafond la 1er biennale de Paris» (1959) 25/10/2005 (Sotheby’s, London) 23 Raymond HAINS USD 88 400 GBP 50 000 : «La lessive Génie» (1961) 25/10/2005 (Sotheby’s, London) 24 Robert COMBAS USD 79 365 FRF 450 000 : La fiancée de Belmondo (1984) 02/04/1990 (Poulain-Le Fur, Paris) 25 Jean-Pierre PINCEMIN USD 78 355 FRF 420 000 : Sans titre (1982) 29/10/1990 (Briest, Paris) 26 ERRO USD 77 622 EUR 63 000 : Hommage allégée (1997) 05/07/2004 (Le Mouel (S.V.V.), Paris) 27 Thomas HIRSCHHORN USD 76 537 GBP 42 000 : Die fünf Kontinente (Ozeanien) (1999) 23/06/2005 (Christie’s, London) 28 Jean MESSAGIER USD 70 671 FRF 400 000 : Frontispice de printemps, 1961 () 20/06/1990 (Jutheau, Paris) 29 Gérard GAROUSTE USD 69 650 EUR 59 000 : L’homme à la veste verte (1984) 11/10/2003 (Cornette de Saint-Cyr (S.V.V.), Paris) 30 Jean-Marc BUSTAMANTE USD 65 000 USD 65 000 : Cypres (1991) 13/05/2004 (Sotheby’s, New-York) 31 Judit REIGL USD 59 103 EUR 55 000 : «Ils ont soif insatiable de l’infini» (1950) 15/04/2003 (Calmels-Cohen (S.V.V.), Paris) 32 Hervé TELEMAQUE USD 58 340 EUR 49 000 : «Coupe» (1974) 23/02/2006 (Artcurial (S.V.V.), Paris) 33 Martin BARRÉ USD 56 437 FRF 320 000 : «74-75-A» (1974-1975) 08/04/1990 (Charbonneaux, Paris) 34 Pierre KLOSSOWSKI USD 53 244 FRF 340 000 : Diane et Actéon (1953) 08/12/1999 (Binoche, Paris) 35 Alain JACQUET USD 48 859 EUR 40 150 : Grues (1966-1967) 09/12/2003 (Artcurial (S.V.V.), Paris) 36 Fabrice HYBER USD 46 410 FRF 340 000 : «Les cinq sens» (1989-1990) 16/12/2000 (Briest, Paris) 37 Bertrand LAVIER USD 45 552 EUR 37 452 : «Peinture blanche et dorée N°3» (1989) 28/06/2005 (Artcurial (S.V.V.), Paris) 38 HUANG Yongping USD 43 650 TWD 1 500 000 : La carte du monde () 14/10/2001 (Christie’s, Taipei) 39 Henry DASSON USD 40 692 GBP 25 000 : Pair of Serpentine and Gilt-bronze Vases (1881) 15/05/1998 (Sotheby’s, London) 40 Pierre HUYGHE USD 39 664 EUR 32 000 : Rue Longvic, Dijon (1995) 26/04/2006 (Christie’s, Paris) 41 Bernard FRIZE USD 38 000 USD 38 000 : «Darche» (2003) 14/05/2004 (Phillips, de Pury & Company, New-York) 42 Gérard DESCHAMPS USD 37 037 FRF 252 000 : Bayadere au Tablier de Jardin 29/04/1990 (Perrin-Royère-Lajeunesse, Versailles) 43 Francesco VEZZOLI USD 36 000 USD 36 000 : Doña Diabla (2002) 10/11/2005 (Phillips, de Pury & Company, New-York) 44 Henri Joseph DE TRIQUETI USD 34 482 GBP 21 000 : Bacchus (c.1860) 21/05/2003 (Sotheby’South, Billingshurst, West-Sussex) 45 Bernard DUFOUR USD 31 634 : Kawasaki traverse l’histoire (1976) 25/02/1990 (Perrin-Royère-Lajeunesse, Versailles) 46 Jean-Michel ALBEROLA USD 30 547 FRF 190 000 : Sixième fiction de Suzanne (1982) 26/11/1989 (Chayette-Calmels, Paris) 47 André CADERÉ USD 27 424 FRF : Grand bâton et son document descriptif (1976) 26/10/1990 (Charbonneaux, Paris) 48 Bernard BAZILE USD 24 790 EUR 20 000 : Boîte de Piero Manzoni ouverte (1989) 26/04/2006 (Christie’s, Paris) 49 Niele TORONI USD 24 691 FRF 140 000 : Empreintes de pinceau no.50 à intervalles réguliers (1978) 08/04/1990 (Charbonneaux, Paris) 50 Rémy ZAUGG USD 24 222 CHF 30 000 : «Blind Picture» (1987-1989) 31/05/2005 (Sotheby’s, Zürich)

These modern classics apart, the young French artists selected for La Force de l’Art are rarely found at international auction, and tend to be very accessibly priced. Moreover, the only under 40s to make it to the sales floors are Stéphane Pencreac’h, Bruno Serralongue, Bruno Peinado, Mathieu Mercier, Michel Blazy and Jean-Luc Vernat, with the top sale going to Bruno Serralongue for his Feu d’Artifice, Serandon (2000), knocked down for EUR 3,000 on 26 April at Christie’s Paris.

Moving away from the young challengers, visitors can also rediscover the established heavyweights of French art, such as Christian Boltanski and Gérard Garouste, both of whom chalked up sales of EUR 50,000 in 2005. Also present is François Morellet, one of whose light-filled installations went for EUR 95,000 at Sotheby’s Paris on 6 October 2005, as well as Bernar Venet, whose 1986 sculpture found a New York buyer at USD 100,000, and Raymond Hains, whose 1968 pot was knocked down for EUR 78,000 at Vence in 2004. There is also Robert Combas, who has the biggest auction presence of any French artist with 150-200 pieces sold every year.

Overall, the price index commanded by contemporary French artists is starting, at last, to revive. No fewer than a third of artists with indices at auction beat their sales record in the last 12 months, and the vast majority are back to the prices reached at the peak of the boom in 1990.