Frac Grand Large is an institution dedicated to building a public collection of contemporary art. Its exhibition spaces now also host works from private collections β but what exactly are these collections?
How are their artistic choices made, what visions of art and society do they embody, and what relationship do they have with public institutions? Mingling expressive intimacy and public outreach, these works typify a time shot through with doubts, visions and emotions.
Paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs go hand in hand with videos, performances, and protocols awaiting reactivation. Collectors form attachments with artists through different contractual arrangements that stretch the limits, the materiality and the duration of the works.
The provocative element aside, it is the economics of the work which become the issue β its market value bound to its media exposure, even! Certain artistic media, painting among them, continue to occupy a place of choice β here they account for nearly half the works β but thanks to the variety and exceptional quality of the works on display we were able to address a great diversity of practices.
We have opted for a pluralist thematic journey through critical approaches to images and representations, both in renewal of the great subjects of art history portrait, landscape, vanitas and through more abstract creations centred on the specificity of media supports as much as history. The exhibition thus generates both rapprochements and tensions between different aesthetic heritages op, pop, expressionist, conceptual.
