Yves Oppenheim (1948, Tananarive, Madagascar) moved to Paris, France, at 20 years old and started his career in painting and drawing with a spontaneous approach, composed of free gestures, organic shapes and evocative representations. Unpredictable, he often plays with the repetition effects and variations of a formal abstract language, creating intricate pictorial spaces and chromatic harmonies. Oppenheim works on large-scale canvases where the created images are coloured shapes, super positions, interlacings and entanglements. They evoke the collages of Matisse (1869, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France – 1954, Nice, France), as well as the American painting of the 1950’s and 1960’s, thus cultivating a poetic search through a sensitive and liberating approach.
In his words, the works “are drawings of sensations, materials and shapes and, that way, they allow the work to be connected to a reality, to an instant of thought. The drawings are related to the pleasure of unlimited freedom. I see them as reverie objects and undefined spaces… I like the way this works at various levels and I try to avoid creating works that reveal themselves at first sight”. Among his most important solo and group exhibitions, the following should be mentioned: Fundación Pedro Barrie´de la Maza, Vigo, Spain (2010); Maison de la Culture d’Amiens, France (2009); Centre d’Art Contemporain du Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Musée de Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium (2000); Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes, France (1998); Centre d’Art Contemporain du Domaine de Kerguéhennec, France (1998) ; Fondation d’Arts Graphiques, Tenerife, Spain (1995) ; ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (1988).
His work is represented in various collections, namely, Carré d’Art, Nimes, France ; Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris ; FRAC – Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpelier, France ; Fundación Pedro Barrié de la Maza, A Coruña, Spain ; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris ; Musée de Chateauroux, France ; Musée des Beaux Arts, Doie, France ; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
PS, october 2020
