L'ATELIER DE PHILIPPE BERRY : DANS L'INTIMITÉ DU SCULPTEUR (1956-2019)

In tribute to Philippe Berry, the Duret Gallery is organizing an exhibition bringing together a significant collection of sculptures and drawings. To fully recreate the artist's creative atmosphere, the gallery has undertaken a reconstruction of his studio. As in Philippe Berry's space, visitors are welcomed by a large resin cowboy and some comic strips, objects that immediately immerse us in the heart of the subject. Similarly, works by the Diamantaire, an artist and friend of Philippe Berry, who had generously welcomed him into his studio early in his career, will be presented as part of the exhibition.

Philippe Berry's art, which he developed at Penninghen in the 1970s, lies at the crossroads of several fields: cinema, graphic arts, sculpture, and painting. His work, primarily inspired by childhood and the world of comic books, is striking for the vitality it exudes, its humor, and its lightness. However, beneath this playful and dreamlike dimension, the artist skillfully tackles formal themes specific to sculpture. For example, with his Elephant Balances, Philippe Berry surprises us and creates astonishment: behind what may seem like a visual gag, he defies the rules of gravity by vertically linking elephants with their delicate trunks.

Following the same principle, he casts colorful balloons in bronze, playing with the notions of ephemeral and indestructible, soft and hard. They echo his Splash works, paint splashes frozen on the walls with sparkling, colorful surfaces, offering a playful nod to Lichtenstein’s Brushstrokes series.

In both his drawings and sculptures, the artist frequently incorporates the human figure, often humorously subjecting his characters to all kinds of acrobatics. A prime example is Tête à l'envers, a sculpture that once again explores issues of balance and gravity with a touch of mischief. Philippe Berry, who also had an interest in mythology, rethought its codes, as shown by his Centaur, which, beyond the burlesque aspect of the representation, touches upon our fears and frustrations.

Indeed, Philippe Berry's art often revolves around the concept of vital energy, which the artist addresses explicitly in his drawings. With humor and poetry, he seems to play with the idea of the artist: a person with his head in the stars, childlike, sometimes almost extraterrestrial, who can also be tormented by existential anxieties, but whose imagination knows no bounds.

Once again, behind the fun and playfulness, Philippe Berry's works, seeking to make the viewer react and reflect, raise questions about the role of art and how it can occupy a space in life.