For nearly fifty years, Alain Clément has developed an abstract body of work situated between expression and compositional research.

His paintings, sculptures and etchings combine optical pleasure and sensibility with skilful construction.

From the 1960s onwards, he has been interested in materiality and painting’s inherent properties and role. He observed American painting and became involved in various movements and art groups. A friend of members of the Supports/Surfaces group, his work was distinguished by its detachment concerning the question of materials, focusing on painting itself – a physical relationship to the canvas. His relationship to painting is almost carnal, without seeking to break away from the masters, who for him are Poussin, Monet or Bram van Velde. The delectation of colour, ample brushstrokes and saturation of the canvas' surface are some of the characteristics that punctuate his work.

The Catherine Putman Gallery has collaborated with Alain Clément since the early 1990s, publishing numerous prints and regularly exhibiting his works on paper. For the first time, the gallery will present on its walls a selection of paintings on canvas, along with a remarkable series of monotypes.

In 2025, Alain Clément tackled the creation of a new series of monotypes. This technique enables him to create unique pieces by playing with the mechanisms of printing. On a zinc plate, he makes well-defined, striking zones of flat colour in ink, tracing coils with a paintbrush or wiping off some ink with a rag, then applying little flat, cutout forms which are also inked. Once this composition of shapes and colours is completed, it is placed under a press and printed onto paper. The operation can then begin again. The master copy is erased and new inks are applied, followed by another round of ink erasure, before repositioning shapes onto the surface, and so on.

This work thus combines the gesture of painting, plays of collage and the surprise of the imprint. It has resulted in a series of rhythmic variations, in which cut-out shapes dance across different backgrounds.

The presentation of these monotypes accompanies a selection of recent oils on canvas, fresh from the artist’s studios in Nimes and Paris. They are characterised by arabesques and interlaced designs In bright colours, whose articulations create a depth in the picture plane. This selection of paintings will be juxtaposed with several other older ones, thus illustrating both the renewal and permanency of a certain formal vocabulary in Alain Clément’s body of work.

(Monotype: engraving procedure allowing a unique copy to be obtained, by printing off a painting on a non-porous medium such as metal or glass.)