Marc Couturier

His work, entitled Barque de Saône, was based on a rowboat filled with water and set up in a way that it seemed to levitate above the ground. This evocation of the symbolic passage from the Nile to the afterworld prefigures the spiritual dimension of his art and reveals the artist's singular and poetic focus on the world around him. He came to the public's attention when his work Hostia, inspired by the eucharistic liturgy, was featured in the iconic exhibition Les Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Pompidou in 1989. In 1991, the artist conceived the concept of  redressement (to recover, or set something upright) which was the inspiration for a series of works “not made by human hands”: the leaf of an aucuba shrub becomes a stained-glass window, a fragment of a barrel forms a sculpture that borders on primary art, to name a few pieces. He has also begun a series of what he terms his “drawings of the third day”, works etched with pencil lead or silverpoint onto a variety of media. Another series, entitled Lames, is made with samba wood, which are gilded then affixed within the wall, is emblematic of the way his oeuvre sits at the intersection of minimalism and symbolism.

Il ne Reste Plus qu’à Demander à Dieu (1987) is a work of Couturier's that was created by the artist during his residency at the Fondation Cartier in Jouy-en-Josas. He then went on to present his large format “drawings of the third day” on the façade of the foundation's venue on the Boulevard Raspail during his solo exhibition there in 1993. In 1995, these large-scale drawings would also be mounted around the perimeter of the Toji Temple in Kyoto, once again at the invitation of the Fondation Cartier, to commemorate the 1,200th anniversary of the temple.