Intimate Visions
The exhibition
‘Intimate Visions’ aims to capture the latent connection between art, nature and time. These notions are expressed through a wide range of artistic practices, including painting, sculpture and ceramics, which are honoured through 150 years of creation, placed on the same pedestal, without any hierarchy of genre. Dialogue is at the heart of the design of this project, which was developed with the contemporary artists on show. The result is a perfect balance between modern and contemporary works.
This is the 3rd edition of this type of show since the White Cube gallery opened in 2023. Art, fashion and design are presented in cross-purposes, using different media and across different timeframes. The curators, Clémande Burgevin Blachman, a French designer specialising in fashion accessories, and Mathieu Paris, White Cube's commercial director, express their attraction to a variety of aesthetics. The ‘Intimate Visions’ exhibition should be seen as an overall creation, which has no pretension other than to exist for its own sake. It is part of an Art Nouveau language, a harmonious marriage of Beaux-Arts and Decorative Arts. Each piece on display is both a piece of furniture and a work of art, an object and a subject.
This intimate space is tucked away out of sight, in the heart of Avenue Matignon. The wood-coloured parquet contrasts with the purity of the white walls, and the stucco flowers flanking the edges of the ceiling in each room subtly evoke the theme of the exhibition. Here, forgotten works are reactivated through their interaction with contemporary creations. It's not just a question of a plastic conversation: through this cohabitation, the young artists are genuinely in dialogue with their predecessors. Diamond Stingily, for example, expressed a certain emotion at seeing his work [1] placed next to a watercolour by Victor Hugo [2]. Both invite us to take a walk, a privileged time to come face to face with ourselves, like a meditation in the open air.
In this bubble of intimacy, the emphasis is also on sensuality. Gustav Klimt's brown ink sketch of an embracing couple [3], revealed in a few, almost evaporated strokes, is a case in point. It then echoes Tracey Emin's acrylic drawing [4], whose fleeting line reveals a nude female figure lying on her bed. In both these works, the faces of the figures are concealed, preserving their identities from prying observers. Situated on either side of the main room, they are reminiscent of each other through their close visual proximity, even though they are more than a century apart. Their mutual gentleness lulls the visitor to sleep.
Marie Tuffou
[1] Diamond Stingily, Apple Tree, 2023, silkscreen printed on mirror, 200×85.5×0.5 cm
[2] Victor Hugo, Seaside at Guernsey, 1856, pen and brown ink wash, charcoal and watercolour on paper, 17×24×1.5cm
[3] Gustav Klimt, Embracing couple, ca. 1914-1916, pen and brown ink on paper, 51×70.8×2.8 cm
[4] Tracey Emin, I was Left here in Time, 2024, acrylic on paper, 49.7×59.7 cm
This is the 3rd edition of this type of show since the White Cube gallery opened in 2023. Art, fashion and design are presented in cross-purposes, using different media and across different timeframes. The curators, Clémande Burgevin Blachman, a French designer specialising in fashion accessories, and Mathieu Paris, White Cube's commercial director, express their attraction to a variety of aesthetics. The ‘Intimate Visions’ exhibition should be seen as an overall creation, which has no pretension other than to exist for its own sake. It is part of an Art Nouveau language, a harmonious marriage of Beaux-Arts and Decorative Arts. Each piece on display is both a piece of furniture and a work of art, an object and a subject.
This intimate space is tucked away out of sight, in the heart of Avenue Matignon. The wood-coloured parquet contrasts with the purity of the white walls, and the stucco flowers flanking the edges of the ceiling in each room subtly evoke the theme of the exhibition. Here, forgotten works are reactivated through their interaction with contemporary creations. It's not just a question of a plastic conversation: through this cohabitation, the young artists are genuinely in dialogue with their predecessors. Diamond Stingily, for example, expressed a certain emotion at seeing his work [1] placed next to a watercolour by Victor Hugo [2]. Both invite us to take a walk, a privileged time to come face to face with ourselves, like a meditation in the open air.
In this bubble of intimacy, the emphasis is also on sensuality. Gustav Klimt's brown ink sketch of an embracing couple [3], revealed in a few, almost evaporated strokes, is a case in point. It then echoes Tracey Emin's acrylic drawing [4], whose fleeting line reveals a nude female figure lying on her bed. In both these works, the faces of the figures are concealed, preserving their identities from prying observers. Situated on either side of the main room, they are reminiscent of each other through their close visual proximity, even though they are more than a century apart. Their mutual gentleness lulls the visitor to sleep.
Marie Tuffou
[1] Diamond Stingily, Apple Tree, 2023, silkscreen printed on mirror, 200×85.5×0.5 cm
[2] Victor Hugo, Seaside at Guernsey, 1856, pen and brown ink wash, charcoal and watercolour on paper, 17×24×1.5cm
[3] Gustav Klimt, Embracing couple, ca. 1914-1916, pen and brown ink on paper, 51×70.8×2.8 cm
[4] Tracey Emin, I was Left here in Time, 2024, acrylic on paper, 49.7×59.7 cm
When
07/03/2025 - 10/05/2025