Othoniel

Description

The first monograph in English devoted to Jean-Michel Othoniel, this book follows the footsteps of a singular and secretive artist. An artist who has a passion for all sorts of metamorphoses, sublimations and transmutations, Jean-Michel Othoniel (Saint-Etienne, 1964) has a predilection for materials with reversible properties. His first gained recognition with a series of sculptures made of sulfur, exhibited at Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992. He is one of the few artists to combine a rigorous artistic approach with a poetic sensitivity. Possessing a rare ability to make use of the beauty of his materials, this volume follows the evolution of Othoniel's atypical approach. Beyond the seductiveness of form, he creates a world inhabited by dreams and enchantment, but also haunted by suffering and melancholy. The artist, who entered into popular favour with his "Kiosk for Night Birds" for the Palais-Royal-Musee du Louvre metro station in Paris, has exhibited widely and received commissions both in France and abroad.

Catherine Grenier is director of contemporary collections at the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris.