Bertrand Dorny
(1931 – 2015)
The poet-collagist of sensitive abstraction
“I listen to what the materials tell me.”
Why is it fascinating?
He paints with scissors and writes with textures. Trained at the School of Applied Arts, he turned very early on to the world of paper, fragments, and restrained gestures, which he brings to life in small, intense forms.
He plays with materials like others with words: he juxtaposes, superimposes, suggests. His language is torn paper, brushed fabric, meticulous collage.
He creates a subtle, almost whispered work, somewhere between the abstract and the intimate. It is an invitation to slow down.
A very contemporary work
Textured minimalism, matte colors, visual silences, his works evoke the mood boards of a stylist or the cutouts of a mental travel journal.
Almost Japanese-style compositions, abstract memories. His works speak softly, in subtle harmonies of colors, textures, and voids like visual haikus. A calm breath in a screaming world.
It brings to mind a slow-art aesthetic, sensitive and discreet, where the delicacy of the gesture becomes an act of poetic resistance in the face of the brutality of the world.
Why is it presented here?
Because Bertrand Dorny is a discreet but deeply original and sought-after artist.
As a friend of Soulages, inspired by poetry, music, and the memory of things, he collaborated with numerous writers and illustrated dozens of books of contemporary poetry.
Because he is an artist for sensitive collectors, in search of a rare material poetry, a gentle abstraction, a fragile emotion to collect.
Where to see it?
- National Library of France (BnF), Paris
- Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris
- Rennes Museum of Fine Arts
- Museum of Grenoble
- Private collections in Europe and the United States