Bertrand Lavier

Bertrand Lavier, born in Châtillon-sur-Seine in 1949, is a contemporary French visual artist. He currently lives and works in Paris and on the Côte d'Or. The artist studied at the National School of Horticulture in Versailles.

    The artist began his work at the beginning of the 1970s. Influenced by artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Niele Roroni or Dennis Oppenheim, he wonders about the relationship between art and everyday life as well as the nature of the work of art itself. His first works of art exploit the ambiguity of everyday objects such as cars, refrigerators… The artist covers these objects with paint in order to transform the objects. At the beginning of the 80s Bertrand Lavier continued this work on objects by playing on the superposition. For example, in 1989 he installed a Panton chair on a refrigerator.

    The artist is part of the ready-made movement, which he considers to be an artistic category in its own right. For example, he chooses to exhibit an automobile damaged in 1993 or even a deflated hot-air balloon entitled Dolly in 1993. When the artist talks about his sites, he declares: “These works present objects, of course, but at the same time they represent objects. sculptures: for example, a real safe represents a plinth, immediately becomes one ”. He will work on other "sites" such as the Walt Disney Productions by highlighting modern paintings in the settings where the character of Mickey is evolving in order to question the representation of modern art within society. The artist's method also consists of mixing artistic categories by creating hybridizations between painting and sculpture. We can cite here Le Piano Gaveau in 2008 presented by Yvon Lambert.

      Bertrand Lavier's work quickly found international influence which has continued to grow. In 1976 the National Museum of Modern Art bought him his first work. It takes part in the most prestigious biennials: that of Venice in 1976, Paris in 1971 and 1985, Sao Paulo in 1985 and Lyon in 2003. In 2012 the Center Pompidou organized a major retrospective entitled “Bertrand Lavier, since 1969”.