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Bernard Frize is a French artist born in 1954 in Saint-Mandé in the Val de Marne. He lives and works between Paris and Berlin. He remained very discreet at the beginning of his career.
Bernard Frize began to make a name for himself in 1977 with the Saint 77 series.
His positioning overturned the codes of painting. Frize’s canvases are covered with a weave of horizontal and vertical strokes of colour. His paintings are known as “All over”, and very early on he asserted his desire to challenge the codes of painting.
From 1984 to 1986, Frize was awarded a grant to stay at the Villa Medici. He was awarded the Käthe Kollwitz Prize in 2015. This prize is awarded to world-renowned visual artists, whether they are well known or on the fringes of the general public.
Bernard Frize paints semi-random shapes. He has long wondered about the practice of painting today, and the role of the artist. His approach is based on chance. For Frize, the painter is not the creator of his canvas, but on the contrary, someone who mechanically carries out his work, like a factory worker.
Paradoxically, Frize’s paintings are also the result of established rules, as taught in art schools.
The Centre Georges Pompidou has devoted a retrospective to him entitled “Sans repentir”, which highlights this duality in 2019. Previously, in 2003, he had already presented a summary of the first ten years of his work at the Musée d’Arts Modernes de la Ville de Paris.
Collections
NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan / Tate Gallery, London, UK / Hiscox Art Projects, London, UK / Tate Modern, London, England / Museum Of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA / Weisman Museum, Minneapolis, USA / Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA / Museum of Contemporary Art, Musée d’art contemporain, Montréal, Canada / Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland / Kunstmuseum, St. Gallen, Switzerland / Kunstmuseum, Zürich, Switzerland / Museum für Gegenwartskunst- Emanuel Hoffmann-Stiftung, Basel, Switzerland / Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig-MUMOK, Vienna, Austria / Essl Museum, Klosterneuburg, Austria / MUKHA, Antwerpen, Belgium / SMAK, Ghent, Belgium / Musée national d’art et d’histoire, Luxembourg, Luxembourg / MUDAM- Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg / Central Museum, Utrecht, Netherlands / De PONT stichting voor hedendaagse kunst, Tilburg, Netherlands / Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany / Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany / Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany / Museum Gegenstandsfreier Kunst Landkreis Cuxhaven, Germany / Museum fur Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany / Städel Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany / Museo Nacional Centro de Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain / Fundacio Caixa de Pensions, Barcelona, Spain / Fundação de Arte Moderna e Contemporânea- Colecção Berardo, Lisboa, Portugal / MNAM Centre Pompidou, Paris, France / Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France / Musée départemental de Rochechouart, France / Carré d’art, Musée de Nîmes, France / Musée des Beaux-arts, Toulon, France / Musée d’Art moderne, St Etienne, France / Musée de Dôle, Dôle, France / Espace de l’art concret, Mouans en Sartoux, France / Caisse des dépôts et consignation, Paris, France / Fond National d’Art Contemporain de Paris, Paris, France / Fond Municipal d’Art Contemporain de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France / FRAC d’Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France / FRAC de Basse-Normandie, Caen, France / FRAC de Bourgogne, Dijon, France / FRAC de Bretagne, Châteaugiron, France / FRAC de Corse, Corse, France / FRAC de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France / FRAC d’Haute-Normandie, Sotteville-les-Rouen / FRAC de Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier, France / FRAC de Limousin, Limoges, France / FRAC de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Marseille, France / FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France / FRAC de Rhône-Alpes, Lyon, France