Jan Dibbets' Horizon Line Works at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris

The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris presents 'Horizons', a comprehensive exhibition of Jan Dibbets' work spanning over forty years, from February 19 to May 9, 2010. Curated by Erik Verhagen, the show focuses on the horizon line, a dominant theme in Dibbets' oeuvre from 1971 to 1974 and again from 2005 onward. The exhibition traces Dibbets' photographic practice, which emerged in the late 1960s amid the dematerialization of art. Unlike many contemporaries who rejected visual elements for language and concept, Dibbets reaffirmed the retinal element, creating photographs that oscillate between figuration and abstraction. Verhagen notes that Dibbets diverts photography from its documentary function toward a pictorial perspective, linking him to Dutch painting traditions of Piet Mondrian and Pieter Saenredam. The horizon line serves as a plastic element to organize and geometrize the image space. Key works include 'Sectio Aurea' (1972), which features graphic annotations explaining the composition, and 'Panorama Dutch Mountains' (1971-1972), panoramic pieces with sinuous horizons. The 'Comets' (1973) series uses mathematical formulas to arrange cut and framed photos. The exhibition highlights Dibbets' interest in perspective, optics, and the deconstruction of photographic representation. By returning to the same horizon images in 2005, Dibbets signals that the motif remains inexhaustible, reinforcing his critical exercise of vision.