A modern nature
Suzanne Husky, Les oiseaux semant la vie, 2022. Tapisserie, 178 × 290 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste & Galerie Alain Gutharc
Pierre Joseph, Lys de jersey (amaryllis belladonna), 2017. Série #pierrejosephredouté, tirages jet d’encre, 130 × 90 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste & galerie Air de Paris, Paris. © Adagp, Paris, 2025
Pierre Creton, Les poissons, 2010. Couture sur papier, 30 × 28,5 cm, signé par l’artiste. Courtesy Salle Principale, Paris
Noémie Sauve, Volcan refuge, 2025. Fusain, mine graphite, crayon de couleur, 120 × 80 cm. Courtesy de l’artiste. © Adagp, Paris, 2025
Artists: Guillaume Aubry, Yto Barrada, Vincent Barré, Kenza Brand, Jonny Bruce, Simon Boudvin, Pierre Creton, David Horvitz, Suzanne Husky, Pierre Joseph, Jochen Lempert, Tony Matelli, Silvanna Mc Nulty, Léa Muller & Sophie Kaplan, Noémie Sauve, Shimabuku, Howard Sooley, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
Curatorship: Claire Le Restif
Public opening : Saturday, April, 5, 5pm-9pm
In this first quarter of the 21st century, what is “modern nature”? Deregulated and sometimes perceived as hostile, how can it, nevertheless, be a bulwark against the anxieties of the present day?
In his diary entitled Modern Nature, British artist Derek Jarman (1942-1994) recounts how the garden he cultivated at Dungeness, in the south of England, played an essential role. Ill, the artist rejected any ornamental conception of the garden and gave the plants he cultivated a vital, resilient force. In his garden, he gives birth to nature as a place of life, hope and resistance in the face of illness, death and despondency.
In this wake, the exhibition A modern nature brings together artists who, through their gestures and attitudes, their poetry and commitments, resist, preserve and draw attention to threatened fragilities, whether plant or animal. The exhibition area is seen here as a “living” organism. It’s a kind of soil born and enriched by the relationships that the artists and Crédac have forged through their various collaborations. Whether they have already been exhibited or are doing so for the first time, their works are in dialogue with Derek Jarman’s garden of “healing colors”. For, as artist Ian Hamilton Finlay (1925-2006) said of his long-running Little Sparta garden in Scotland, “some gardens are described as refuges when they are really assaults”.
