Julio Le Parc
Cercle en contorsion sur trame
1965
wood, motor, rhodoïd
123 x 132 centimeters
Using the theoretical principle of the mirror, LE PARC questions the usual polarity between object and subject. The mirror—the phenomenal medium par "excellence", and highly permeable to its environment—receives the image of the surrounding world, but never freezes it in the way photography or even cinema does. Unlike many of the artist's works containing mirrors, the goal is not simply to trap light, but also reflect what is around it.
Julio Le Parc
Cloison à lames réfléchissantes
1966
steel, aluminum
232 x 277 centimeters
LE PARC attempts to go beyond the laws of perception and geometry so as to translate the destruction of form and light within the phenomenological space. "Cloison à Lames Réfléchissantes" (1966-2005) as the "Relief avec Plaques Réfléchissantes"(1966) is made of parallel, slated structures of vertical polished stainless steel blades. In-between objects or screens, these sculptures not only reduce vision. Because of the multiple reflections playing on their surfaces, these partitions often offer a dislocated, multiplied, and accelerated vision of what is happening behind them, whatever your view point.
Julio Le Parc
Continuel-lumière cylindre
1967
wood, plexiglas, motor, light bulb
289 x 251 centimeters
The light beams of the "Continuel-Lumière-Cylindre" are projected on a circular metalized edge at intervals thanks to a system of rotary caches. The metalized edge reflects the beams on a neutral background where they intertwine and disappear into themselves. The composition undergoes continual transitions and the ever-changing image wreaks havoc on the eye, disorienting the eye until it gives itself over to the mysteries of the work. Or on the contrary, it looses itself in the work: indeed, the enhanced circular structure of the object and the ephemeral circulatory logic of the light beams may reveal, as is the case in the 'Targets', a new allusion to the ocular globe.
Julio Le Parc
Ensemble de onze jeux surprise
1967
wood, plexiglas, plastic, motor, etc.
190 x 390 centimeters
At the time of 'May 68' and its iconoclast audience, spectators were being prepared to get involved in both the future of the work and the community, just as they were in previous projects by the GRAV (such as the "Labyrinthes" where it was written that the public was 'forbidden not to touch' the work and "Une Journée dans la Rue" in 1966).This piece is made out from different 'games' invented by LE PARC, involving reflection, movement and optic effects.
Julio Le Parc
Lampe pulsante projetée
1966
wood, metal, motor, light bulb, magnifying glass
94 x 23.5 centimeters
Being photonic, phenomenal, and spatial, LE PARC's light is no longer an object within itself (defined by its colour, material, texture...) like paintbrushes. For the "Lampe Pulsante Projetée" (1966), the image of the light source itself —a simple electric bulb—is projected on a wall. Tautology can be suspected but the principle of the projection excludes any possibility of contemplation: the irregular image appears intermittently on the wall due to a little mirror which, as it turns rapidly around a light bulb, obscures and reveals the image at set intervals. The sculptures forms a 'flicker' object that presents in a transitive or modified way the form, light, and our gaze (which is often the case in LE PARC's work) in order to enact the phenomenological mechanism of Plato's Cave: perception, as violent and distorted as it may be, must have its source in the finite systems of analysis in order to avoid any mystification or manipulation by the watcher.
Julio Le Parc
Lunettes pour une vision autre
1965
plastic, inox, glass
5 x 14 centimeters
Even though "Lunettes pour une Vision Autre" (1965) and "Miroirs"(1966) fly in the face of traditional painting, they won LE PARC the Grand Prize of painting in Venice Biennale in 1966. They can be considered true 'individual environments' (J. Clay) since they use various forms of displacement, distortion, diffraction, and fragmentation, to alter the entire world around them, i.e. the architecture of the venue, the other works, and the other visitors.
Julio Le Parc
Mobile transparent
1962
acrylic glass, painted wood, metal and nylon thread
150 x 150 centimeters
The work from the limited series "Continuels Mobiles" are grids made up of a collection of multiple small plastic or metal squares in suspension on a medium in order to form either a mural relief or a round-bump sculpture, such as "Mobile Transparent" (1962-1996). Like Robert Morris's parallelepiped "Cloud" (1964), LE PARC's work is suspended high in the air, floating almost like a cloud, here with an intensely vibrating internal prismatic structure. The numerous elements of a "Continuel Mobile" (1962-1996), even with their lack of internal 'composition', are nevertheless set into motion by the tiniest change in the air currents, a truly Calderan action. LE PARC's use of reflected light distinguishes his work from that of CALDER and brings a new level of complexity. Light is indeed trapped in the structure, multiplied and diffused in every direction. These beams of light are then projected throughout the exhibition hall, turning it into a panoptic screen.
Julio Le Parc
Projet couleur - n° 14
1959
gouache on paper
38 x 30 centimeters
LE PARC always works in series and applies an implacable anti-pictorial logic which makes the simplest geometry becoming the surprise enemy of the form itself. Such a method, incidentally, exonerates him from any formalism or expression of a personal artistic sensibility.
Julio Le Parc
Projet couleur - n° 2
1959
gouache on paper
38 x 30 centimeters
LE PARC always works in series and applies an implacable anti-pictorial logic which makes the simplest geometry becoming the surprise enemy of the form itself. Such a method, incidentally, exonerates him from any formalism or expression of a personal artistic sensibility.
Julio Le Parc
Projet couleur - n° 9
1959
gouache on paper
38 x 30 centimeters
LE PARC always works in series and applies an implacable anti-pictorial logic which makes the simplest geometry becoming the surprise enemy of the form itself. Such a method, incidentally, exonerates him from any formalism or expression of a personal artistic sensibility.
Julio Le Parc
Sphère couleur
1971
acrylic on cork
138 x 30 centimeters
The choice of colours for Spuère couleur is the product of a rational logic, inherited from Max Bill, first used by Le Parc in 1959 in a series on paper and tracing paper (Projet Couleur), which he abandoned in 1960. The principle is purposely simple and explicit: according to a simple combinatory scheme, each one of the fourteen circles is painted in one of the fourteen colours of the spectrum, which he chose beforehand.
Julio Le Parc
Surface couleur - Série 14 2E
1971
acrylic on canvas
200 x 200 centimeters
The paintings entitled "Surface Couleur Série 14 2 E" and "Surface Couleur Série 14 n° 9", produced in 1970-71, mark a surprising return to painting, a practice that LE PARC, like the rest of the GRAV in 1960, had excluded from his work. Similar to the rest of his works, each 'Target' creates a minimalist and deductive structure where every new element stems from the previous one. It is systematically constituted out of fourteen concentric circles of solid colours on a white background of a square canvas (ranging up to 2 x 2 meters). The choice of colours is also the product of a rational logic, inherited from Max Bill, first used by LE PARC in 1959 in a series on paper and tracing paper ("Projet Couleur"), which he abandoned in 1960. The principle is purposely simple and explicit: according to a simple combinatory scheme, each one of the fourteen circles is painted in one of the fourteen colours of the spectrum, which he chose beforehand. Since the system continues from one work in the series to the next, each combination constitutes a new and 'unique' painting.
Julio Le Parc
Trame en mouvement virtuel
1965
wood, paint, mirror
204 x 247 centimeters
Like "Instabilité par le Mouvement du Spectateur" (1962-1964), work that was shown in 1965 in "The Responsive Eye" exhibition at the MoMA, the Trame au "Mouvement Virtuel" (1965) is a monumental vertical relief with several hollows lined with mirrors which reflect, deform, multiply and contort a simple grid painted in white on black background, in relation with the body movement.
