The exhibition Patrick Vernon – l’après-midi de ma vie (The afternoon of my life) presents a selection of Vernon’s works from the 1980s. It is being hosted by the Abbaye aux Dames and enjoys the generous support of the municipal museum and the municipality of Saintes.

13 October – 9 December 2018
L’Abbaye aux Dames, Saintes
11 Place de l’Abbaye
17100 Saintes
www.abbayeauxdames.org
Email: info@abbayeauxdames.org
Tel: 05 46 97 48 48

Opening: Saturday, 13 October 2018, 5pm

Opening times:
Tuesday—Saturday: 10am—12:30pm, 1:30pm—6pm
Sunday and public holidays: 2pm—6pm

L’après-midi de ma vie is the second exhibition of his work in France and the first major solo exhibition since 2014. It brings together more than fifty works from his most productive period, the 1980s. Many are abstract and reveal his wide-ranging exploration of colour fields and colour patterns.
 
A number of works are on show here for the first time, including a series in which Vernon uses squares, rectangles and other geometric forms that evoke kaleidoscopic patterns or stained-glass windows. The small blocks of colour, mosaic-like and carefully demarcated, reveal an atmospheric density and a poetic dimension, uniting painterly expansiveness and graphic precision. Light seems to emerge from the depths. The watery glaze-like application of colour creates gradients of saturation and translucence. Throughout Vernon’s oeuvre, line and colour are finely balanced. Their interplay often evokes an impression of architecture or a three-dimensional quality.

Curator: Claudia Peppel, Berlin
Exhibition co-ordinator: Séverine Bompays, the director of the Musées de Saintes

At 3:30pm on November 8, Séverine Bompays, the director of the Musées de Saintes, will conduct a guided tour of the exhibition.

At 10:30am on December 2, there will be a reading and a concert, reflecting Vernon’s passion for literature and classical music.

Programme of L’Abbaye aux Dames: Plaquette-sept-dec-2018-BD-2

Translated by Simon Srebrny