NEw RElease
Pascal Pierre: Origines & Life, a 244-page monograph published by GF Contemporary, Inc.
Art Historian Robin Clark Essay (Reprinted with kind permission)
There can be no doubt that Pascal Piermé (b. 1962) is a formalist. Attention to the properties of his materials; a focus on balance, proportion, and texture in both two- and three-dimensional compositions; and refinement of technique and craft are all foregrounded in his oeuvre, which spans three decades. Piermé is largely self-taught, although he studied art practice and art history as a high school student and was exposed at an early age to the work of prominent modern artists including Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, and Germaine Richier – whose influences were strongly felt in the French Riviera where Piermé was raised. He admits to being more attuned to nature than culture, and like artists ranging from Georgia O’Keeffe to Ken Price, has discovered a strong affinity for the landscape of New Mexico, where he has made his home since the late 1990s. (1) This does not mean, however, that his works are devoid of nuance, narrative, or ambiguity; rather, they demonstrate how Piermé thinks through form. (2)
Instead of taking a strictly chronological approach, this essay will consider the ways that fluid associations abound in Piermé’s work across time and media. In the case of the clustered totemic elements that are regularly occurring motifs in his sculptural production, the forms can be understood simultaneously as figurative and architectonic, with interpretations remaining open-ended. The five elements in Les sages 4 (2010) (fig. 1) could represent a community of elders or scholars, as the title implies, although the notches at their bases also suggest archways or portals. This double valence is more pronounced in a work such as Les citadines 1 (2019) (fig. 2). While the title (which may be translated generally as “city dwellers” or, in Piermé’s interpretation, as “women who live in town”) ascribes a degree of anthropomorphism to the work, the spire or steeple forms also suggest a cityscape.
