Fine Arts Paris

An exhibition within an exhibition. Around 1905, a generation left the studio for ports and shorelines. They abandoned the grays of the art school and the browns of the studio to paint from life, in broad daylight, in places chosen as much for their light as for their beauty. What changed then was not just the setting, but the very treatment of shadow. Where tradition expected a brown, a black, a shadowed area, these painters applied a pure color, as intense as that of the illuminated areas. Derain wrote to Vlaminck from Collioure during the summer of 1905: “a blonde, golden light that eliminates shadows.”

POST-WAR ABSTRACTION

Painting and sculpture of the second half of the 20th century: the mark, the texture, the
bronze, black shaped by light. After 1945, a generation turned away from representation without turning away from the world. It no longer painted what the eye sees, it created what the eye experiences. Sculpture, for its part, did not abandon modeling, but redirected it toward other forms. The upright silhouette, the edge, the vertical thrust, the rough surface that catches the light. As for black, long considered the absence of color, it became the most luminous material of all: it was no longer a matter of painting light, but of capturing it and reflecting it.

FOCUS EMILY YOUNG

Emily Young began her career as a painter before traveling around the world in the 1960s—experiences that would profoundly influence her art.

Beginning in the 1980s, she devoted herself to stone sculpture, often favoring materials sourced from abandoned quarries. She combines the traditional craftsmanship of hand-carved stone with contemporary technological tools when necessary. From this fusion of ancient and modern techniques emerge sculptures that seem to transcend time.

Through her work, she seeks to create a more conscious connection between human beings and the living world around them. Her works invite viewers to perceive what connects civilizations and individuals across eras and territories.

Her sculptures are featured in prestigious institutions (the Getty Museum in California, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) and in collections around the world. Some are installed in iconic public spaces, such as in front of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London or on the esplanade at La Défense in Paris.