Engraving Carpet - José Maria Sicilia 2005

Since 1989, the Musée du Louvre and the Réunion des Musées Nationaux have entrusted contemporary artists with the task of producing engraved plates for the Chalcographie, which is responsible for the exclusive printing of the plates, with no limit on the number of prints.

Very different trends in contemporary...

Since 1989, the Musée du Louvre and the Réunion des Musées Nationaux have entrusted contemporary artists with the task of producing engraved plates for the Chalcographie, which is responsible for the exclusive printing of the plates, with no limit on the number of prints.

Very different trends in contemporary art are represented. Geneviève Asse rubs shoulders with Georg Baselitz, Pierre Courtin, Jean-Pierre Pincemin, Pat Steir, Jean-Michel Alberola, Robert Morris, Louise Bourgeois, Marcus Raetz, Pierre Alechinsky or Agathe May.

After studying in Madrid, Sicilia moved to Paris in 1980. Her painting is figurative. He mixes still life and images of simple objects, playing with form and content. Between 1985 and 1987, he produced works dominated by white. He adds and scrapes away material to reveal other whites, colored residues, lines and shapes. For him, the touch is part of the unveiling of transcendence. He began playing with light in 1990, using wax and paper to filter or reveal it. He then turned to the narrative power of the book, creating boundless works in print, paint and wax. The theme of carpets is prominent in his work: the carpet of a mosque or patches of color on the pavement of a church are metaphors for eternal tranquility. Inside and outside, present and past, waking and dreaming, shadow and light merge. Patterns here are like gateways to the invisible, to another dimension of understanding.