Jean Hubert Martin – författare

Globalisation has forced us to stop thinking that art only exists in the West. The very notion of art was invented by the West and refers to the learned version of its material culture. It was then projected onto other civilisations, particularly Asian ones, and finally onto the preliterate societies of Africa and Oceania.Whether or not these cultures possess the concept of art is of little importance, because when they honour their gods, they inevitably address what they consider to be the acme of beauty. For a long time, this openness to other aesthetics was based on the arts of the past, until it was finally accepted that there were living creators in these distant lands, and that today’s means of communication have brought them closer to us. These “others” who appeared in the 1980s are by no means a homogenous group. Without stretching this analysis too far, they can be regarded as falling into two categories: those who have opted for modernity and submit to the demands of the market and Western based institutions, and those who concentrate on giving visual expression to their communities and beliefs, ignoring the demands of the art market. Australian Aboriginal art represents an intermediate situation, since alongside art of a sacred nature, there are works deliberately produced for sale, initially encouraged by missionaries.Nothing Too Beautiful for the Gods aims to show the variety of works connected with the spiritual impulse, from those used in religious rites to contemporary artworks that refer to them. These hybrid works are often the result of accommodations with modernity. The exhibition and accompanying book bring together altars from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia, works by artists invested with religious responsibilities (Didi, Shiraga), works by religious artists (Ramoun) and others by artists who refer explicitly to religions and spirituality (Sooja Kim, El Anatsui, Vasquez de la Horra, Bedia, Boltanski, Viola).Text in English and French.

Through more than one hundred works, the official catalogue of the first major exhibition of M.C. Escher in Paris retraces the entire artistic journey of the Dutch engraver (1898–1972), from his early training and travels in Italy to the complex technical experiments that made him an artist admired even in scientific circles. The volume reconstructs the visual and conceptual universe of M.C. Escher: a space where nature, art, science, and mathematics intertwine in a fascinating and vertiginous balance. His works—true architectures of imagination—continue to influence our contemporary way of seeing and have entered the collective imagination through school textbooks, magazines, design, and popular culture. Trained as a graphic artist, he produced around 450 prints, each characterised by a distinctive style and extraordinary precision. His creations appeal not only to art lovers, but also to those passionate about geometry, mathematics, visual sciences, architecture, and graphic design. This catalogue is much more than a simple exhibition companion: it is a comprehensive guide to the universe of M.C. Escher, where imagination meets geometry and reality bends to the laws of infinity.