Marcel Alocco, Henri Cueco, Hervé Di Rosa, Gérard Fromanger, Jacques Monory, Hervé Télémaque, Jan Voss… So many names who, each in their own way, explored practices echoing, on the fringes of or in opposition to the major movements of the 1950s to 1980. All of them also left their mark on the Lescombes estate, in Eysines, joining a program where emblematic figures and more confidential or emerging talents interact.
Alain Lestié, “Figure 1964”.
Château Lescombes Contemporary Art Center
The very first to open the program, in 1995, was Alain Lestié. Thirty years later, Pierre Brana, curator of the exhibitions organized at the art center, wanted to celebrate this anniversary by honoring an artist with whom he shared a long bond. Their shared history dates back to Sed Contra, a Bordeaux collective born in the post-1968 ferment. From 1971 to 1973, five art lovers and six artists joined forces there to shake up a local scene considered too tame. Their ambition? Offer young artists an exhibition space, democratize art in popular circles and debate on art in general and painting in particular. If the attempt to write a single manifesto hastened the end of the adventure, the links between Brana and Lestié remained intact.
Château Lescombes Contemporary Art Center
Alain Lestié, “Projection”.
The exhibition inaugurated Thursday January 23 takes up the principle of the retrospective tour of 1995, but in an enriched version. “I made sure that none of the works presented at the time appeared here,” specifies Pierre Brana. With some 200 pieces – paintings, drawings and editions – she explores an artistic approach that is difficult to classify, although anchored in painting and figuration. “Alain Lestié wanted us to think in front of a painting, for it to be a place of reflection,” recalls Pierre Brana.
Château Lescombes Contemporary Art Center
Alain Lestié, “Rose”, 1971, screenprint for Sed Contra.
In this spirit, Lestié refused to allow purely aesthetic contemplation to take precedence over the thought that animated his works. His approach favored a sober palette, rigorously balanced compositions and titles which, often but not always, provided clues to accompany this “supervised freedom”.
A meteoric rise
A native of Hossegor, Alain Lestié is experiencing a meteoric rise. At just 29 years old, he joined the prestigious Galerie de France. In Bordeaux, he participated in the exhibition “For Memory” at the CAPC in 1974, alongside Boltanski, Monory and Gasiorowski, under the direction of Jean-Louis Froment, before seeing his work highlighted in 1978 by the Center Pompidou and the Venice Biennale, or the Peter Findlay gallery in New York (1998).
The current exhibition traces a trajectory that began in the 1960s with oils soberly titled “Figure” or “People of the Dead”, dominated by dark tones. In the 1990s, Lestié abandoned painting for black and white drawing, using Nero pencil (mixture of soot and clay). A lover of the Mediterranean, he moved to Cannes at the end of the same decade, where he died on January 25, 2024 at the age of 79. This unclassifiable work, marked by rigor and reflection, continues to dialogue with those who contemplate it.
Until April 20, Château Lescombes, 198, avenue du Taillan, Eysines. Free entry from Wednesday to Sunday from 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. except public holidays. 05 56 28 69 05.
