gallery kashya hildebrand new york artist profile: christiane grimm

GALLERY KASHYA HILDEBRAND NEW YORK
ARTIST PROFILE: CHRISTIANE GRIMM
MATTER AND MEANING
Part I: Water and Its Histories
For some years now, Christiane Grimm has opened up to the world of science and established dialogues
with scholars in the fields of physics or geology. Her current work integrates a creative research on the
physical qualities of light and color.
The artist’s photographs invite the viewer to appreciate a rational world before penetrating a timeless
and poetic universe. As the artist explains: “First, I am captivated and seduced by the force of color, I
am dazzled by it. Then, I look at the matter that holds the color. My gaze touches it, plunges into it. At
this moment, the color is in my eye, exacerbated, saturated, dense or shaded. The color is also in the
back of my eyes, where it appears, for an instant, weak and fleeting.”
Bathed in light, colors come from water, ice, or air in a mineral, vegetable, and animal world. Christiane
Grimm, inspired by science and her thoughts filled by the history, myths, and symbols of color, is
trying to represent the essence of things as well as their multiplicity of meaning.
This series of large-scale photographs was created around the theme of water and its histories. Christiane
Grimm chose to work on this element for its symbolic significance and its sensual quality. But more
importantly, she was interested in the way water transforms the appearance of matter, which is very
close to the way light interacts with objects. And light is, for the photographer, a major artistic concern.
“The gaze of Christiane Grimm penetrates matter and distills within it the senses: the eyes first capture
the essence of color in all its intimacy and then interpret the symbolism of the object thus recomposed.
In turn her perspective balances both opposite and complimentary forms, thereby reiterating the eye
as an instrument of investigation. In this quest, science, the eminence grise, is always in close proximity
to the artist. As such, her blacks are no longer the blacks of a child’s nightmares, nor are her whites the
whites of mere expectancy and void, of which anything is possible.”
Libero Zuppiroli
Professor of Physics and the History of Science, The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
Lausanne; researcher in the physics of molecular and organic materials, in particular of
their optical qualities.
531-539 West 25th St. New York, NY, 10021, USA
Tel: (216) 366 5757 Fax: (212) 366 4747 [email protected] www.kashyahildebrand.org
GALLERY KASHYA HILDEBRAND NEW YORK
ARTIST PROFILE: CHRISTIANE GRIMM 2
Born in 1952 in Basel (Switzerland). Lives and works in Geneva.
1974–1977
School of Fine Arts, Basel
1978
Practices painting, drawing and photography
1980
Co-producer and set designer for the film Seuls by F. Reusser
1984
Adaptation and dialogue for the film Derborence by F. Reusser,
official selection at Cannes, won the César 1985 for best French-language film
1986
Receives a Federal Grant for Applied Arts (photography section)
1988–1990
Teaches drawing and color at the Centre d’Enseignement Photographique
Professionnel in Yverdon-les-Bains
1993
Conception and photography for the documentary film Passage de la Recherche (for
the television channel Arte), which receives a Special Jury Prize at the Festival du Film
Scientifique de la Tour Eiffel
1994–1999
Photographic research, in collaboration with Libero Zuppiroli, professor of physics at
the EPFL in Lausanne and M.N. Bussac, for the illustration of “Traité des couleurs,”
a series of photographic studies on a variety of themes related to the city of Geneva
1999–2000
Overall conception and realization of a model for Traité des couleurs by L. Zuppiroli
and M.N. Bussac—book published in April 2001 by the Editions des Presses
Polytechniques Universitaires Romandes. Photographic research on water, stones
and books, to accompany a text by writer Maurice Pianzola.
2001
Research on a vision of the Lake spanning the period from the ice age to the present
day
531-539 West 25th St. New York, NY, 10021, USA
Tel: (216) 366 5757 Fax: (212) 366 4747 [email protected] www.kashyahildebrand.org
GALLERY KASHYA HILDEBRAND NEW YORK
ARTIST PROFILE: CHRISTIANE GRIMM 3
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2002
Nouvelle Compagnie de Réassurances, Geneva
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Geneva
2001
Objectifs Soreya Azarmsa, Geneva
1999–2000
Maison Tavel, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva
1999
Halles de l’Ile, Geneva
1998
Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris
1997
Café des Bains, Geneva
1995
Saint-Gervais, Geneva
1993
Galerie Europa, Geneva
1992
Galerie Anita Neugebauer, Basel
1988
Centre Valaisan du Film, Martigny
1987
Cinéma City, Pully
1986
Galerie du CEPP, Yverdon-les-Bains
1985
Cinéma Romandie, Lausanne; Espace Ringier, Zürich; Théâtre de Poche, Bienne
531-539 West 25th St. New York, NY, 10021, USA
Tel: (216) 366 5757 Fax: (212) 366 4747 [email protected] www.kashyahildebrand.org
GALLERY KASHYA HILDEBRAND NEW YORK
ARTIST PROFILE: CHRISTIANE GRIMM 4
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2002
Galerie du Centre Culturel, Morges (Rouge)
Maison des arts du Grütli, Geneva (24h pour la photographie, Plaine de Plainpalais)
2001
Galerie Pascal Gabert, Paris (1 Figure)
Ecole d’ingénieur, Yverdon (Etats du Lac)
1998
Maison Tavel, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva (les Quais)
1997
Fotomuseum Winterthur (Regards sur le monde)
Galerie Anita Neugebauer, Basel (la Fleur)
1993
Musée de Pully (C.F. Ramuz dans les collections du Musée)
1986
La Grenette, Bern (Bourse Fédérale)
1977
Musée Rath, Geneva (drawings)
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne
Fondation de la Photographie Suisse, Kunsthaus Zürich
Fonds Cantonal de Décoration et d’Art Visuel, Geneva
Musée de Pully
Documentation photographique de Genève
Centre d’Iconographie Genevoise
Has been living and working in Geneva since 1971.
March 2002
1998, 1997
1997
Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Geneva, Switzerland
Salon de Mai, Paris
Fred Lanzenberg Gallery, Brussels
531-539 West 25th St. New York, NY, 10021, USA
Tel: (216) 366 5757 Fax: (212) 366 4747 [email protected] www.kashyahildebrand.org