CROSSED PERSPECTIVES CURATOR’S STATEMENT
As a French curator living in the United States, I viewed French contemporary art from a different perspective. The research was fascinating, full of unexpected developments, and extremely rich. The artists and their galleries stood as our first informers. At the same time, we asked contemporary art professionals for their input. That’s how the concept of the exhibition “Tour de France / Florida” was formed. Except for French artists having lived or living in Florida, we were uncertain about the actual representation of the French art scene when we started to work on the project. In the end, a broad representation of not only the big names of internationally acclaimed artists appears, but also a younger generation of emerging artists. Such an exhibition cannot pretend to be comprehensive. Because of their size or fragile condition, some important works by Gilles Barbier, Jean Marc Bustamante, Claire Fontaine, Loris Gréaud, Jean Michel Othoniel, Bernar Venet, could not be exhibited at the Frost Museum. Our intention has been to promote artists, through choices that speak to artistic issues as much as to the spirit that led to their acquisition. With a mix of paintings, pictures and installations, each collection has a specific tone. There is sometimes a concern to ingrain the collection in contemporary art history, while other times the priority is given to emerging practices. Overall some tendencies come out: the position of “classical” media, painting and sculpture, and the relation to writing. The exhibition, bringing together about thirty artistic perspectives, is structured around artists showing groups of works (Claude Viallat and Hervé Télémaque) or recognized artworks (Christian Boltanski), but we also emphasize pieces that were never or rarely shown before. The outcome of this adventure is the result of all these crossed perspectives. The exhibition was also made possible thanks to the generosity of the collectors who positively answered our proposition, and for the invitation by the Frost Museum. I am most appreciative to all. Martine Buissart Curator
Left to right: Sophie Calle, Exquisite Pain Day (Day 7), 2000, Embroidery text panels and photo panels, 75½ x 52½ inches, Collection of Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz; Image of the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry; Hervé Télémaque, L’aveu, (La chambre noire No. 9), 1991, Assemblage, Collection of Claude Auguste and Farah L. Douyon