Bernar Venet

Bernar Venet is a French visual artist, born in 1941 in Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. He has been living in the United States since 1966 where he has become known for his steel sculptures and his drawings. In the 60s, Venet showcased canvases covered with tar. 

Bernar Venet's notoriety began during this period, with the creation of a formless sculpture, composed of a pile of coal poured on the ground. His capacity for intellectual abstraction and his taste for mathematical reasoning and experimentation lead Venet to what was soon to become conceptual art.

In the 80s, Bernar Venet set up the basic structure of his "Lignes indéterminées". He produced them in steel and installed in many urban spaces and public collections, including Nice, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Strasbourg, Beijing, Austin, San Francisco, Museum of Grenoble. In 2011 Venet installed his monumental works in the Versailles gardens.

In 2022, Berlin's Tempelhof Kunsthalle hosted a five-month long retrospective spanning the artist's career from 1961 to 2021.