Lot 69: NARCISSE TORDOIR

NARCISSE TORDOIR BELGIAN B. 1954 UNTITLED 1986 acrylic and wood collage on wood 40 x 40 cm / 15.75 x 15.75"

Some recent solo exhibitions
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle 2009-10, 'Picture This!'
Crown Gallery, Brussels 2006
Extra City - Center for Contemporary Art, Antwerp 2005, 'Are We Changing the World – Narcisse Tordoir Collaborate Works'

Some recent group exhibitions
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle 2009, 'Banks Violette / Sophie Ristelhueber / Narcisse Tordoir'
MOCA, Beijing 2008, 'Confronting the Image'
Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam 2005, 'Monopolis – Antwerpen'
Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna 2004, 'working ethics'

Selected publications
Philippe Pirotte [et.al.], The way of the world, Mechelen: CCM 2009
Painting in Flanders after 1980, Antwerp: Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen 2005
Cyril Jarton [et.al], Are we changing the World: Narcisse Tordoir Collaborate Works, Antwerp: Extra City 2005
Jens Hoffmann, Artists' favourites, Frankfurt am Main: Revolver 2004

Selected public and corporate collections
MUHKA, Antwerp, BE • Mu.zee, Oostende, BE • SMAK, Ghent, BE • Museum Het Valkhof, Nijmegen, NL • Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NL • Centraal Museum, Utrecht, NL • Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, NL • Museum Waterland, Purmerend, NL • FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, FR

donated by the artist

For Narcisse Tordoir, painting is an activity that moves beyond the domain of art and traditions; he abandons the flat plane to place his panels perpendicular to the wall. By using mirrors and framed views, he offers viewers a variety of perspectives. He constantly reinvents painting, pushing the medium to the limits of its expression. Tordoir's recent work consists of compositions – often of a huge format – of all kinds of elements and shapes. They are often the result of research based upon photos, drawings and stagings that he creates in his studio. The artist also uses screen-printing techniques, airbrush and gestural dripping paint that combine in highly complex yet clear, compositions.
WORDS (1962) was an 'environment' by American artist Allan Kaprow (1927-2006). The physical presence of words in our everyday environment prompted Kaprow to make a kind of textual 'action painting'. Painting's preeminent role, which lies at the root of Kaprow's work, was one of the key reasons why Kunsthalle Bern invited Tordoir to reinvent Kaprow's work in 2007. Because Tordoir concentrates on the status of images through painting, his prime focus was not Kaprow's movement away from painting, but his earlier practice, where various elements merged.

Narcisse Tordoir is advisor at the Rijksakademie.

www.narcissetordoir.com