Robert Malaval's Multifaceted Practice at Galerie Pauline Pavec

Galerie Pauline Pavec in Paris presents "Robert Malaval, joker" from February 21 to March 24, 2019, featuring around twenty works that span the artist's entire career without chronological order. The exhibition highlights Malaval's resistance to coherence and his embrace of plurality, echoing his 1980 statement: "I love change, that's my line. The only one I can find for myself." Works include paintings (Paysage flou, 1960), reliefs and sculptures (Aliment blanc, 1958-63; Développement exceptionnel d'une cristallisation d'Aliment blanc, 1961), drawings (Cent demi-heures de dessins quotidiens, 1969), sound pieces, and glitter works (Gold Falls I, Gold Falls II, 1975). The show revisits his famous Aliment blanc period—a frightening yet pure substance that seems to grow and invade spaces—as well as his early works often mislabeled as Art Brut (discovered by galeriste Chave, who represented Jean Dubuffet), his exploration of everyday sound, and his later transcendental creations using glitter. Malaval committed suicide one month after a second public painting performance at the Maison des Arts de Créteil, where audience criticism led him to write a scathing letter ending with "I don't give a damn and fuck you all." His prolific, heterogeneous oeuvre touches on Dada, Minimalism (Sol LeWitt), relational aesthetics (1971 exhibition at Centre national d'art contemporain), Nouveau Réalisme, and Pop Art, offering a condensed history of 20th-century art.