Bernard Aubertin (1934)

Artist: Bernard Aubertin (1934-2015)

Bernard Aubertin was born in 1934 in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. Around 1951 he began his apprenticeship at the School of Decorative Arts. The meeting with Yves Klein in 1957 was dazzling, which led him to create his first four red monochrome plates the following year. The choice of this color is spontaneous, impulsive and frees him from any chromatic manipulation of the design, graphics and composition. His research is characterized by the exclusive use of red, a privileged color and symbol of blood and at the same time the element of fire. In 1961 he participated in the ZERO group in Düsseldorf together with Mack, Piene, Uecker and in 1957/58 in the NUL group in Amsterdam. He also comes into contact with Piero Manzoni and Lucio Fontana. Parallel to the monochromes in 1961 he created his first tableaux feu (fire paintings), and in 1962 the first burned books which he resumed with Livres brûlés et à Brûler (books burned and to be burned) adding explosive matches, fuses, sticks of lightning, bags of smoke powder, candles, white matches, etc. inside each page of the book and inviting the viewer to burn the book. His is a curiosity linked to the work of fire and the reflection of the flame. He says of his work: «There are two colors in my work, that of fire, of caramelization, of the cremation of black or the red one of painting monochromes.» From the tableaux clous (nail paintings) which, being covered in paint, perfectly represent the flames; to the tableaux fils de fer (wire paintings), to the dessin de feu (drawings of fire) or even the Parcours d'allumettes (paths of matches), up to the performances of the pianos set on fire which date back to 1988, to the burned cars and the sememas of the nineties. His artistic activity took place mainly in Paris, then in Brest and was punctuated by frequent Italian stays between the 70s and 90s. His monochrome work has recently developed towards black, white or gold monochromes. He lived and worked the last years of his life in Reutlingen, Germany, where he died in 2015.