François Morellet
Artist’s Statement
"In order to set a limit on my sensitivity as an « Artist », I have eliminated composition. I have also removed all interest attaching to the execution of the work, and I have rigorously applied simple and obvious systems, activated through chance or the participation of the viewer, that could develop productively."
Biography
François Morellet (1926–2016), a prolific and self-taught artist, pioneered a radical approach to geometric abstraction through his paintings, sculptures, and installations over a career that spanned more than six decades. Known for his commitment to basic geometric forms and diverse materials—including steel, neon tubes, adhesive tape, wire mesh, and wood—Morellet developed a methodology grounded in rigorous objectivity and personal detachment. His artistic process sought to demystify the romantic notion of the "inspired" artist, favoring instead a structured approach where each choice was driven by a pre-established principle. Often, he even introduced elements of chance into his works. Morellet's sense of humor and playfulness are evident in his titles, which frequently include puns, parodies, and portmanteau words.Born in Cholet, France, where he lived and worked all his life, Morellet studied Russian at the Ecole des Langues Orientales in Paris before returning to run the family toy factory until 1975. This work enabled him to gain financial independence as he concurrently was familiarizing himself with the tools and production techniques that would come to influence his practice.
In early 1960s France, Morellet was one of the six founding members of the experimental artists collective Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV), which also included Francisco Sobrino, Horacio Garcia Rossi, Julio Le Parc, Yvaral and Joël Stein. He also participated in the international Nouvelle Tendance movement, which sought to collectively create and develop experimental art based on scientific knowledge of visual perception.
1970 began a period marked by the creation of increasingly stripped-down works that played with their support and the space surrounding them. He also produced a large number of architectural integrations, beginning with his first monumental intervention on the Plateau de la Reynie in Paris (1971), at the site of the present-day Centre Pompidou.
Morellet’s work has been included in a number of major international group exhibitions, including Documenta in Kassel, Germany [1964 (with GRAV), 1968 and 1977] and the Venice Biennale (1970 and 1990). In 1971, his first solo museum show was organized by the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands, which subsequently traveled throughout Europe. Other major retrospectives of Morellet’s work have been organized at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin (1977), the Centre Pompidou (1986 and 2011) and the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume (2000) in Paris. He was also the subject of a North American retrospective in 1984-85, which traveled to Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Montreal’s Musée d’art contemporain, the Brooklyn Museum and Miami’s Center for the Fine Arts. In 2010, Morellet became the second artist to have a work inaugurated during his lifetime at the Musée du Louvre, the permanent in situ installation L’esprit d’escalier.
His work is represented in major public collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Dia Art Foundation (New York), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (New York), Seoul Museum of Art, Tate Britain, Tel Aviv Museum, Kunsthaus Zurich and Nationalgalerie Berlin.Influences
After a brief figurative period in the 1940s, Morellet embraced abstraction following a transformative trip to Brazil in 1950, where he encountered concrete art and the work of Max Bill. The influence of Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg soon became pivotal, as did the precise, anonymous aesthetic of Islamic decorative art he discovered at the Alhambra in Spain in 1952.
In the late 1950s, Morellet’s encounter with Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp's "Duo-collages," introduced to him by his friend Ellsworth Kelly, inspired him to incorporate chance as a guiding principle in his work. He used random sources like telephone book numbers or the endless decimals of pi to dictate forms, structures, and compositions.
By 1960, Morellet had developed an array of systems to organize his forms, such as superimposition, fragmentation, juxtaposition, and interference. This period saw the creation of his first "trame" works—networks of parallel black lines layered in meticulously ordered sequences.Awards
2012 _ Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Ministère de la Culture, Paris, France
2011 _ Elected member, Académie royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium
2008 _ Peter C. Ruppert Preis für Konkrete Kunst in Europa, Stiftung Peter C. Ruppert – Sammlung Konkrete Kunst, Stadt Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
1997 _ The Superior Prize, V Henry Moore Grand Prix, Hakone Open-Air Museum, Hakone, Japan
1996 _ Grand Prix national de Sculpture, Ministère de la Culture, Paris, France
1981 _ II National Medal, II Wrocław Drawing Triennial, Wroclaw, Poland
1979 _ Will-Grohmann-Preis, Berliner Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
1978 _ Medal of Honor, I Wrocław Drawing Triennial, Wroclaw, Poland
1975 _ I Prize, XIII Bienal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1974 _ Ohara Museum Prize, IX International Biennial of Prints, Tokyo, Japan
1971 _ III Prize, IX Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia
1963 _ I Prize, IV Biennale di San Marino, San Marino, ItalyWebsite
Showing all 5 artworks
François Morellet
Zwei Interferenz Schnitte, 1977
70 x 14 x 7 cm Wood with rhythmic incisions
François Morellet
2 trames de chevrons-positif, 1959-1960
62 x 62 cm silkscreen on cardboard
François Morellet
Répartition aléatoire de 40000 carrés selon les chiffres pairs et impairs dun annuaire de téléphone, 1971
80 x 80 cm Framed: 92 x 92 x 3 cm Screenprint on paper
François Morellet
Répartition aléatoire de 40000 carrés selon les chiffres pairs et impairs dun annuaire de téléphone, 1971
80 x 80 cm Framed: 92 x 92 x 3 cm Screenprint on paper