Paul-Armand Gette

Paul-Armand Gette (born May 13, 1927 in Lyon ) is a French artist .

Life

Paul-Armand Gette, PAG, began his artistic activity in 1955 with charred objects, the “calcinations”, then, from 1959/1960, he worked with verbal “crystallizations” and letterpress type. These are sculptures, graphics or photographs made from letters of different sizes .

“Edges” are a special subject of investigation, whether it is the edge of a forest, a beach or a skirt hem. These margins are described using scientific methods. This includes photographing, listing, categorizing, whereby Linnaeus ' nomenclature is used in the case of beetles and plants .

Because of this way of working, PAG is assigned to forensic evidence , part of conceptual art . The inclusion of scientific methods in his art leads him to measure and record pebbles, select different specimens of pebbles, photograph them, and exhibit and publish the results.

From 1970 he deals with little girls. His then still underage models are photographed, but in most of the photographs - in accordance with PAG's preference for the edges - only details such as a shoe, a skirt or a mouth are shown.

At first the little girls are only photographed, later, when they grow up, this becomes “touching the model” (Le toucher du modèle). However, the model is not only the young girl (the nymph), but also the nymphea ( water lily ). PAG thus plays with ambiguity and at the same time quotes the French impressionist Claude Monet with his water lily pictures.

A recurring theme are the pebbles, which he has been collecting since 1963 and using in his work.

Projects

• Since 1994 he has been working on the "Chronicles of Aphrodite".
• Since 1966 he has been editor (together with Turid Wadstein ) of the magazine Eter .
• Numerous exhibitions since 1960, including Documenta 6 (1977), São Paulo Biennale (1981), Documenta urbana (1982).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Günter Metken: Spurensicherung, Amsterdam, 1996, pp. 143-165
2. ↑ Erwin Stegentritt: Paul-Armand Gette and measuring, in: Paul-Armand Gette: Comparison of scree of the White and Red Saar, Saarbrücken, 2013, p. 18

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul-Armand Gette in the catalog of the German National Library
• www.paularmandgette.com
• List of Paul-Armand Gette's exhibitions until 2003.
• List of publications up to 1995.
• Poetry of subversive logic, article by Franz Kaiser, 1989
• About the confusion, text by Paul-Armand Gette