BERNAR VENET CHRONOLOGY
1941
Born on April 20 at Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban in the Alpes of Haute-Provence.
His father, Jean-Marie Venet, a schoolteacher and chemist, dies at the age of 40, leaving his widow Adeline Gilly in charge of their four sons, of which Bernar is the youngest.
1947-57
School at Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban. As a boy, Bernar Venet suffers from asthma, and is forced to spend long spells at spas and an aerium at Saint Raphaël.
With the encouragement of a local artist, he is drawing and painting extensively by the time he is ten.
At age eleven, Bernar is invited to exhibit in the Salon de Peinture Péchiney in Paris.
1958
Fails the entrance exams for the Decorative Arts School in Nice. Studies for one year at the municipal art school of the city, the Villa Thiole. There while defending Picasso’s work to fellow students, shocks the Director, and is suspended for a week.
1959
Works as a stage designer for the Nice City Opera. Period of highly stylized paintings described by himself as “symbolic”.
1961
In February, he joins the army, and serves for 22 months. Initially he is assigned to the army reception center in Tarascon. There, an attic is put at his disposal, which he converts into a studio. Initially, Venet’s paintings are gestural, and executed with his feet. Quickly they develop into black monochromes made of tar. In some cases, he works a surface without leaving trace of his action. The blank surface nevertheless became a work. These he called “fetishist works”.
1963
Returns to Nice; establishes a studio in the old quarter; on rue Pairolière. Further development of the tar paintings and detailed photographs of gravel and coal piles. Other experimental photographic works. His first sculpture, Coal Pile has no specific dimensions. The work is characterized by extremely restrained means.
Towards the end of the year, does the first cardboard reliefs, that he describes as “industrial paintings”.
Becomes friendly with Arman as well as with some New Realists in Paris (César, Hains, Villeglé), who offer to share exhibitions with him.
1964
Venet participates in the Salon Comparaisons at the Museum of Modern Art, Paris. He exhibits alongside the New Realist and Pop Artists, despite the intentionally divergent nature of his cardboard reliefs.
1966
His first trip to New York in April and May.
Returns to Nice. Invited to participate in the Impact 1, exhibition at the Céret Museum, France; sends a blueprint for a tube. Becomes aware of the objective aspect of blueprints, and their semantic characteristics. Set to work intently on diagrams, thus creating his first mono-semiotic works.
Creates the project for a ballet to be danced on a vertical plane.
In December, Venet decides to permanently settle in New York. Initially lives in Arman’s studio, 84 Walker Street, formerly Tinguely’s studio.
1967
Resides at the Chelsea Hotel, his conceptual work develops along logical lines.
Meets Minimalist artists through the Dwan Gallery.
Frequents the Mathematics and Physics Departments at Columbia University and befriends two researchers, Jack Ullman and Martin Krieger.
He produces the “non visual” works on magnetic tape. His focus in on content, not the visual characteristics of artworks.
Sets up a four-year program, intending to stop all artistic production with it’s completion.
1968
Settles into a loft in SoHo, New York.
Venet collaborates with the scientists from Columbia University, to stage a performance at the Judson Church Theatre in SoHo, New York.
Work first exhibited in the USA and Europe.
Two conceptual exhibitions at the Wide White Space Gallery, along with Beuys and Broodthaers, at the Düsseldorf Kunsthalle.
Works are bought by the Krefeld Museum, who offers to stage his first museum exhibition.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquires a Venet piece.
Meets Daniel Templon, who becomes his dealer in Paris at his gallery on rue Bonaparte.
Participates in the exhibition “Conception Konzeption” in Leverkusen, Germany.
Moves to a loft on Broadway, in SoHo.
1969-70
Frequently travels and lectures throughout Europe, The United States, and Japan. Bernar Venet decides for theoretical reasons to cease his artistique activities.
Retropspective at the Krefeld Museum, Germany.
1971
Retrospectives at the New York Cultural Center, New York.
Publication of the Catalogue raisonné of his conceptual work on the occasion of the exhibit at the New York Cultural Center.
1972-73
Returns to Paris.
Period of reflection: Venet writes about Conceptual Art and his own work. His purpose is to correct commentary that he judges to be erroneous, and to elucidate and detail the specific nature and originality of his efforts.
1974
Teaches “Art and Art Theory” at the Sorbonne, Paris.
Frequent lectures in France, England, Italy, Poland and Belgium.
Monograph by Catherine Millet published by Editions du Chêne, France and Edizioni Prearo, Italy.
Film produced by Jean-Pierre Mirouze on Bernar Venet, Œuvre terminée œuvre interminable.
Exhibit of his conceptual works at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London.
Represents France a the XIIIe São Paulo Biennale, Brazil, with Gottfried Honegger and François Morellet.
1976
Returns to New York in January. Moves to West Broadway and becomes compelled to again produce art. The first canvases from the series Angles and Arcs, are a group of extremely restrained paintings of elementary geometrical figures.
Retrospective of his conceptual works at La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California.
1977
Exhibits at Documenta VI, Kassel, Germany. Exhibition of recent work at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Saint Étienne, France.
1978
Participates in the exhibit From Nature to Art. From Art to nature, at the Venice Biennale, Italy.
Canvases: Chords subtending Arcs.
1979
Begins the series of wood reliefs Arcs, Angles, Diagonals, and creates the first Indeterminate Line.
Starts work on steel sculptures composed of two arcs. Concept for a monumental arc on a highway.
Receives a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.
Develops the series of wood reliefs Indeterminate lines.
1982
Moves to a new loft on Canal Street, across from the Hudson River.
1983
First macquettes for steel sculptures of indeterminate lines.
Seth Schneidman produces the film Bernar Venet 1983 in New York.
Projects for monumental sculptures.
1984
November: starts creating his sculptures at Atelier Marioni, a foundry in the Vosges region of France.
First exhibition of Indeterminate Lines , (floor/wall) sculptures at Galerie Templon, Paris.
The Ministry of Culture and the Paris Rhin-Rhône Highway Company commission a monumental Venet for the A6 Autoroute. First plans for, and photocollages of The Major 185.4° Arc.
1985-86
Public commissions in Epinal, France; Nice, France; Austin, Texas; and Norfolk, Virginia.
These works are fabricated at François Labbé’s foundry in Nice.
1987
For the 750th anniversary of Berlin, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Air France, present the city with Arc of 124.5°. This sculpture measures 70 x 140 feet.
1988
Jean-Louis Martinoty asks Bernar Venet to stage his ballet Graduation, (conceived in 1966), at the Paris Opéra. The Artist is the author of the music, choreography, set designs and costumes.
Receives the Design Award for his sculpture in Norfolk, Virginia. Exhibition of photographs (1961-1988) at Galerie Michèle Chomette, Paris.
The E.P.A.D. commissions the monumental Two Indeterminate Lines for the new La Défense business center on the edge of Paris.
Installation of Arc of 115.5° for Telic-Alcatel, Strasbourg.
Publication of a substantial monograph Venet, by Jan van der Marck; Editions de la Différence, Paris.
1989
Awarded the Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris, by Jacques Chirac, Mayor of Paris.
A series of new projects for steel reliefs called Possibility of Indeterminacy.
Performance of L’intervention de l’artiste sur la Ligne à vif, November 23, at Galerie Templon, Paris.
Installs Two Arcs of 197.5° in Belley, France.
Aquisition of Le Muy, in the Var region, a factory where he installs his works and collection. He lives and works there in the summer months.
1990
Inauguration of the monumental sculptureIndeterminate Line at Place de Bordeaux, Strasbourg, France.
First furniture exhibition at Galerie Mostra, Paris, and then Galerie Eric Van de Weghe in Brussels.
Creates first macquettes and large scale versions of Random Combinations of Indeterminate lines.
1991
Creates several musical compositions including Sound and Resonance at the Studio Miraval, Var, France.
Release of two compact discs on the Circé-Paris label, Gravier/Goudron, 1963, and Acier Roulé E 24-2, 1990.
Executes a series of new heavy, torch-cut steel furniture.
Noir / Noir et Noir, a book on Bernar Venet’s photographic work from 1961 to 1991, is published by Editions Maval, Paris. Text by Jean-Louis Schefer.
Completes Le Rocher des Trois Croix, (joint homage to Giotto, Grünewald and El Greco) installed atop the mountain Roquebrune-sur-Argens, in the Var region of France.
Filming begins for Bernar Venet, “Lines”, by Thierry Spitzer and Jean-Marie del Moral.
1992
Bernar Venet records the sounds of the Air France Concorde engine, for the musical composition Wall of Sound. He shoots the film Rolled Steel XC-10 at the Marioni Vosges atelier.
Travels to Japan for the inauguration of the sculpture at Adachi-ku, Tokyo.
Starts a series of steel reliefs composed of arrows, Arbitrary and Simultaneous Directions.
Solo exhibition at the Person’s Weekend Museum, Tokyo.
Participates in the exhibition Manifeste at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
1993
Invited to participate in the artist’s film festival in Montreal for his film Rolled Steel XC-10.
Retrospective exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain in Nice, France, which travels to the Wilhelm-Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Publication of the monograph Bernar Venet, text by Carter Ratcliff, Abbeville Press, New York; Cercle d’Art, Paris.
1994
In March, presents a retrospective of his work at the Museo de Arte Moderno, Bogotá in Colombiá.
From May through July, Mr. Jacques Chirac, then the Mayor of Paris, invites Venet to present 12 sculptures from his Indeterminate lines series on the Champ de Mars.
Later that autumn, he exhibits at the Total Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and at the Boca Raton Museum of Art in Florida.
Works on the first sculptures Barres droites.
A monograph by Carter Ratcliff is published by Editions Cercle d’Art, Paris.
1995
In the spring, travels to San Francisco for the inauguration of his monumental sculpture Indeterminate line, at the Runnymeade Sculpture Farm.
In May, he inaugurates in Kowloon, Hong Kong at the Museum of Modern Art, the first exhibition of the world tour of the works presented in 1994 at Champ de Mars.
In June, he is the first artist to inaugurate the new Museum of Art in Shanghai.
A sojourn to Graphicstudio - Tampa, Florida for an edition of large monoprints realised with tar and a steam roller.
He develops his new work on the theme of the straight line- Accident Pieces.
New reliefs executed in steel with an acetylene torch- Indeterminate Area.
1996
Invited as a “Master in Residence” at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, in Florida.
Is awarded the honor of Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres by the Minister of Culture in France.
Thierry Spitzer films an installation of Accident - the new works composed of straight lines, which are also exposed at the Galerie Karsten Greve in Paris, and in July at the Espace Fortant de France at Sète.
From May through July, the city of Brussels invites Venet to exhibit 10 large sculptures from the Indeterminate lines series on Avenue Franklin Roosevelt.
1997
Moves to a new studio in Chelsea, New York City.
Begins a news series of sculpture titled Four Arcs and Five Arcs.
Designs a museum complex, for an exhibition in Musée d’Art Concret, in Mouans Sartoux, France.
Becomes a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg, Austria.
1998
Travels to China. Is invited by the Mayor of Shanghai to participate in the Shanghai InternationalSculpture Symposium.
Executes large scale Four Arcs sculptures, and intensively develops Indeterminate Area reliefs during the summer in Le Muy.
Return to Bernar Venet