Since the 2010s Agnès Thurnauer has been developing a body of work around the plasticity of language. The sculptural counterpart of this work is titled Matrices.
The Matrices/Seating are functional sculptures created from the shape of the moulds for the letters of the alphabet used in typography. The letters, readable intaglio, build an open structure that is simultaneously sculpture, language and seat.
For the musée de l'Orangerie Agnès Thurnauer has created the Chromatic Matrices, set up in several spaces in the musée de l'Orangerie. To echo the Water Lilies of Claude Monet the artist has chosen the word "chromatic". The twelve matrices of which it is composed diffuse the aura of the masterpiece throughout the various spaces of the museum like so many "Water Lilies-letters".
The Matrix vase, in enamelled white stoneware created especially for the musée de l'Orangerie, takes up the mould for the letter O, formed by three curved sections, each one pierced by an enamel niche in which to place flowers with short stems. The three colours of the enamel - blue, pink and yellow - stand for the primary colours which
are fundamental to all painting and which figure largely in Claude Monet's masterpiece. Constructed as an O, or deconstructed as arcs of a circle, the vase affords many potential floral combinations. The enamelled colour of the inside of the vase contrasts with the white and untreated stoneware on the outside. The round shape echoes the oval shape of the rooms where the Water Lilies are.
In order to make this vase Agnès Thurnauer worked in close collaboration with the sculptress Marianne Abergel who designed the prototype and co-ordinated the execution of the project. Ulrike Weiss ensured the making of the vase in a Parisian workshop.
This vase bears a number (the first in a limited edition of 30) and is signed by the artist herself. Please note: the 30 copies will be sent out at random.
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