Écoute l’artiste
Valérie Belin

Flowers feature prominently in many of Valérie Belin’s (France, 1964) works, whether as the central subject (in the series Fleurs, 1998; Bouquets, 2008) or as a surface motif (the series Black Eyed Susan I and II, 2010–2013, or China Girls, 2018). Taken from her Bouquets series, the work presented here is characteristic of the French artist’s signature style: the choice of a specific black-and-white treatment, verging on monochrome, and a larger-than-life, monumental scale.

What the artist presents here ultimately has little to do with the flower itself. Neither its manifold symbolism nor its elegance are invoked here. The focus of exploration lies elsewhere: in photography itself, as the artist makes full use of the palette offered by choices of focal length, lighting, framing and the degree of precision in the rendering. The bouquet thus lends its flowers, leaves, textures and contours to the artist: it is the body of the bouquet that she reveals, its lines of tension, the balance of its masses, here radiating from the flesh of the rose’s heart, there creating deep, bewildering shadows. To linger in contemplation of this weightless photographic body is to rediscover photography laid bare.

Valérie Belin (b. 1964) graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts de Versailles (1983–1985) and the École nationale supérieure d’art de Bourges (1985–1988). Her work is exhibited worldwide and features in numerous public and private collections. She was awarded the Pictet Prize in 2015 and exhibited at the MNAM – Centre Georges Pompidou that same year.