Station: [40] Bernar Venet, Four Arcs of 235,5°, 1999


The central feature of the work of Bernar Venet (b.1941 in Château- Arnoux/Alpes de Haute Provence), which covers many mediums, is dynamism. It governs his activities in all fields: painting, installation, design, concrete music, as well as theoretical writings, but above all it characterises his large-scale steel sculptures. The different programmatic groups of work shift between two diametrically opposed positions, one systematic, the other random. The element that provides structure is line ("ligne terminée" or "ligne déterminée"), which takes the form of a curved or bent band, rod or bar of steel. He took part in documenta in 1977 and in the Venice Biennale in 1978, and he achieved international recognition in the 1990s.

Bernar Venet

Four Arcs of 235,5°, 1999

Steel, painted

Permanent loan Michael and Eleonore Stoffel Foundation

© Stiftung Skulpturenpark Köln, 2015, Photo: Axel Schneider, Frankfurt am Main