Joël Froment (1938-2023), Untitled, 1986, Pastel On Paper

Joël FROMENNT (1938-2023)
Untitled, 1986
Pastel on paper
Signed and dated "86.12" lower right
50 x 50 cm
SOLD UNFRAMED

Joël Froment attended the Sèvres art high school before joining the École des Beaux -Arts de Paris in 1962. He obtained a higher diploma in visual arts there. In 1968, he was the first abstract painter to win the First Grand Prix de Rome and as such was a resident of the Villa Medici until 1972 under the direction of Balthus. Back in France, he exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and participated in the international MADI movement advocating an art free from constraints, playful and inventive.

After a period of lyrical abstraction and tired of writing that he considered repetitive, Joël Froment moved towards minimalist geometric abstraction. Curves, straight lines and tangents then come together under the precision of its tools. Combined with the symbolism and internal movement of each color, these shapes offer multiple combinations. The plastic language based on the relationship between geometric shapes and the energetic aspect of colors developed by Joël Froment brings it closer to concrete art as defined by Theo van Doesburg: “concrete and not abstract painting, because nothing is more concrete, more real than a line, than a color, than a surface”.

The artist's work, resulting from successive experiments, results in the application of the principles of two-dimensional painting to three-dimensional relief. The abandonment of the traditional support is accompanied by reflections on space. Joël Forment moves from large painted canvases to the design of plastic objects, exploring three-dimensional form and thus inventing the vocabulary of a particularly original sculpted work.

The work on paper that we are offering illustrates the artist's thoughts regarding the construction of reliefs. This is a fine example of the links between his sculpted work and his two-dimensional work.