André Cadere
Barre de bois carrée C, 1970
On loan, together with a series of black & white photographs made in his studio in Paris in 1970, to the exhibition, André Cadere, Expanding Art at the Fondation CAB, Brussels, Belgium
07.03.2023—15.07.2023
Curated by: Hervé Bize
The exhibitions of André Cadere (1934-1978) are always events in themselves because they are rare and complex to organise due to the limited number of artworks produced by the artist during two very distinct periods, the first from 1960 to the spring of 1967 in Bucharest (remained confidential, not on view in Brussels) and the second until 1978 in Paris.
In addition, they also pose somewhat the same type of equation to their curator, how to show his work, especially if they are focused or even entirely dedicated to what represents more or less the last seven years, that being the realisation of the famous round wooden bars to which the figure of Cadere is undeniably linked, this almost continuous presence of the artist, holding a bar or having one of them close to him. However, even for this final period, it would be to forget Cadere, essentially from 1975, produced a number of exhibition displays that were specific to him and that these polychromic bars could also be seen seen by an audience without his presence.
While the exhibition André Cadere, Expanding Art, produced by Fondation CAB, focuses on a large body of round section bars, it also includes other types of bars, including examples of square section bars made by the artist in 1970; it also allows the visitor to discover several remarkable and unseen works from the years that prelude them (1969-1971).
Finally, the last part of the exhibition will be devoted to textual pieces that recall the importance of language within his work, as well as to photographic series linked to Cadere’s constant travels. Filmed documents will also highlight various interventions in the public space, introduced by Cadere in 1972.
The Square Wooden Bars are the first pieces that André Cadere realised after he decided to stop painting (on canvas). They are the first to be builded with algorithms and are introducing a conceptual approach. Abandoning the two-dimensionality, Cadere produced these complex sticks which look like totem poles or pegs that are set up at the thresholds of homes in certain cultures.
These bars are constituting the first stage showing the way that these objects saw the light of day as mobile works or as Cadere often insisted, reversible paintings liberated from the wall. By creating, units of measurement, secret codes that introduce them as a removable sculptural medium, these pieces were thoroughly dedramatised, controlled, both self contained and yet teeming with potential uses : as instruments they could be set in motion, shifting gears in certain situations, discussions and reflections. They belong to a series of twelve different bars, all about 2 meters long, numbered with letters : one of the sides of the bar is covered with black linoleum, on this side there is a small sticker with a letter inscribed by Cadere himself.
They have been exhibited in Paris at the Palais Galliera in 1971. At this occasion Cadere choose to put them on the floor end to end. Each bar is plane-parallel and is composed of spliced spectrum coloured segments, building a volume object in a very elaborated sequence.
Barre de bois carrée and th black & white photographs originate from the Kervahut—Collection Laurent Fiévet.
