Agnès Thurnauer's Pictorial Manifesto at Palais de Tokyo

Agnès Thurnauer's exhibition 'Les Circonstances ne sont pas atténuantes' at Palais de Tokyo in Paris from January 10 to February 28, 2003, presents a pictorial manifesto. The show includes large paintings, videos, and documents reflecting the artist's intellectual and sensitive universe. Dominated by white and pastel watercolor-like hues, the canvases feature words and phrases, sometimes reversed, revealing the creative process: the canvas is worked on the floor, turned and returned, accumulating heterogeneous elements like stickers, a piece of Kendell Geers' poster found on the street, or a turned postcard, before being stretched. Some paintings are displayed horizontally. Thurnauer's work is noted for its porous, open, and political nature, avoiding direct figuration or narrative. Instead, her canvas receives reality like a continuous recording video, with stickers evoking AIDS deaths. Critic Jean-Marc Huitorel argues that Thurnauer's painting also engages with the modernist project, not as 'art for art's sake' but as 'art with art,' using painting's specific means to address thought and the world. She adopts a 'clear manner' to maintain painting's openness and specificity. Concurrently, Thurnauer exhibits at Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot in Paris from March 22 to end of April.