63. 63AR BERNAR VENET (born 1941) Undertermined Lines 1991 Signed, titled and dated lower right Oil stick on paper Gesigneerd, getiteld en gedateerd rechtsonder Olieverf op papier Signed, titled and dated lower right Oilstick on paper 110 x 129 cm Provenance / Herkomst Eric Van de Weghe Gallery, Belgium Private collection / privécollectie, Belgium The authenticity of this work has been kindly confirmed by the artist. This work is registered in the archives under the inventory number bv91d58 Bernar Venet became an artist at a time when lyrical abstraction was exploding in France and conceptual art in the United States. He did not subscribe to these movements and sought something else to broaden the field of creation. So he looked elsewhere for inspiration, to disciplines outside the art world such as mathematics, geometry and physics. His work developed around one theme: the Line, which became straight, curved and indeterminate before transforming into Arcs and Angles. From the outset, his work was radical, even austere, compared with the abstract art of the 1960s, which was generally lyrical and colourful. Using black and industrial materials, with minimal and deliberately inexpressive gestures, he was determined to create an absolute object, one whose form referred only to itself and not to the artist's "style". He remains faithful to the initial principles of his creation (principle of equivalence, refusal of aesthetics and principle of monosemia) on which he bases a protean work: paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, architecture, poetry, sound works, films....Extract from the text by Maud Barral.