Philippe Decrauzat

First monograph

Philippe Decrauzat (*1974, Lausanne) uses a variety media for his work—wall painting, shaped canvases, objects, installations, works on paper. He elaborates, in his voluntarily limited and thus flat chromatics, complex geometrical compositions. His abstract practice is first and foremost situated in the lineage of Op art of the 1960s, but running through the artist’s fascination for optical forms is an interest in graphics, cinema, architecture, and even literature. For example, a space painted with fine, undulating lines projects us immediately into the film “Tron” rather than into a 3D painting by Bridget Riley. As Decrauzat puts it, he is “interested in [the] direct relationship Op art provides to the viewers and the way it influences their minds. Unlike some artists from the 1980s, I am not trying to build up a new theory about ideological issues regarding the historical content of abstraction. I am strongly involved in investigating the status of the image, in other words, indebted to practices trying to outline the critical tools developed by Conceptual and Op art.”

The monograph is published with the Guggenheim Stiftung, Zurich; the Centre d’art contemporain, Geneva; and Le Spot, Le Havre.

French edition (ISBN 978-3-905770-65-0) only available by les presses du réel. Limited stock.