The Dina Vierny Gallery is pleased to present to you the exhibition Robert Couturier: Silhouettes, which will take place from May 24th to July 25th, 2024.

"In the Silhouette," so were called the portraits in Chinese shadow drawn and then cut out according to the cast shadow of a face that was fashionable during the time of Etienne de Silhouette (1709-1767), Minister of Finance and friend of Enlightenment philosophers before they denigrated him due to his "reductive" function. The ephemeral minister amused himself by seating his guests near a parchment screen and illuminating them with a lamp to outline their shadow. The humor and sense of unity of the figure are found in the works of Robert Couturier, who has no equal in summarizing a body, an attitude, a couple, in a few essential lines, in an incisive cut, giving rise to a true drawing in space, an almost bi-dimensional sculpture "with nothing in it that weighs or poses" (to borrow from Verlaine's poetic art).
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue.

Biographies of the exhibition curators:

Thierry Dufrêneis a professor of Contemporary Art History, director of the "History of Art Representations" research center, and scientific secretary of the International Committee of Art History. A recognized specialist in the work of Alberto Giacometti and 20th-21st century sculpture, he is also a member of the International Association of Art Critics and the editorial board of the journal "Diogenes," with exhibitions, publications, and articles on contemporary artists to his credit.


Claire Maingon, art historian and lecturer at the University of Rouen, specializing in the art of the Great War, also directs the journal Sculptures, dedicated to the study of sculpture from the 19th century to the present day.