Document sans titre

livres / books

Capriccio, Adrian Schiess, l'oeuvre plate (the flat work),

Text by Denys Zacharopoulos

français / english

Format 21 x 28 cm, 160 pages, colour printing, bilingual French and English, retail price 29 €, including tax. Published November 26, 2004. ISBN 2-915772-02-9

imited edition (25 copies). Retail price 180 euros, including tax. Available on order from Analogues. Each book, numbered and signed by the artist, is accompanied by a work ("Morceau", 1999, oil painting on cardboard) by Adrian Schiess. see paintings

Since Adrian Schiess’s exhibition in 1993 at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, his work has been very much in the spotlight in France. Yet, until now, there existed no monograph devoted to his work. The text here – at once an analysis and an essay – by Denys Zacharopoulos is on a par with Adrian Schiess’s work, addressing the essential questions raised by the artist. The scope of Adrian Schiess’ work is brought to light through the intransigence of both the artist’s and the author’s personal and critical positions with respect to painting and art. In exploring the work, Denys Zacharopoulos’ approach is at once plastic and painterly, almost analytical and yet historical, sifting through the social, economic, political and philosophical aspects implied by the work’s poetics; attentive to various fields of influence and the singular junctions of creation, the author has adopted a deeply committed approach, never seeking to conceal his admiration for the artist nor his love of the work. The carefully maintained dispersion characteristic of Adrian Schiess’s work and the fragmentary, aphoristic writing of Denys Zacharopoulos come together in the pages of the book, where image and text, meaning and thought shift and gain intensity with the volatility of the arguments and the writing style. Subtle mood shifts reinforce the continuity of the author’s argument, whereas the varying scansion of experience underscores its theoretical consistency. The pictorial work’s self-evidence takes form as the discourse folds and unfolds over the seven chapters of this genuine reflection on painting today.

« Adrian Schiess develops his painting works on plywood, on wood, on rice paper, tissue paper and all sorts of other types of paper, on board, on chipboard, on metal, on found materials and synthetic products, etc. He draws, makes sketches and notes, watercolours and gouaches, filling large numbers of notebooks. He occupies all kinds of supports using all kinds of materials. Likewise, he paints in oils, acrylic and watercolours, with wax, with sprays, with ink, with India ink, with coloured pencil, with industrial paint, dispersion paint, lake, enamel, metal, etc. He does photographs on aluminium, on sheets of wood or synthetic materials. He makes posters and works on paper that can be put directly on the wall or any kind of surface. He makes video tapes, interactive videos on monitors, videos in projections and installations, etc. His most characteristic works are made with metallic paint on chipboard panels strengthened with PVC and covered with metal, and on new and synthetic materials. […]
Throughout this exploration over time, the specific space of his work has remained extremely limited, rigorous and strict. Based on immutable theoretical foundations, the space of the work absorbs the philosophical kernel, the rational definition, the historical consciousness, the analytical dimension, the operational concept and the specific nature of art in a single element, capable of founding, without any metaphysical complacency, what can poetically be called “painting” and, politically, “painting itself.”
Denys Zacharopoulos, excerpt.

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