We are pleased to present our new exhibition, Tension and colors – around Olle Baertling, echoing the exhibition currently dedicated to this major abstraction artist by the Swedish Institute.

The exhibition brings together works that resonate within a shared field of research: that of pure, energy charged colors whose interplay generates tension and sets the surface in motion. Alongside Olle Baertling, we present works by Charles Bézie, Nicholas Bodde, Jean-François Dubreuil, Günter Fruhtrunk, Auguste Herbin, Jean Legros, and Yves Popet.

The common thread lies in the use of flat colored surfaces, devoid of any volumetric illusion, yet which nevertheless appear resolutely spatial. For Olle Baertling, it was essential that the work be an experience of opening and expansion. In his compositions, angles remain open: despite the narrow convergence of two lines, the shape never closes. Instead, it simultaneously deploys vast colored fields that extend beyond the frame, reaching toward the infinite.

In the works presented, colors activate the canvas space, revealing their full strength at the point of contact where their boundaries confront one another. Chromatic contrasts, directions induced by diagonals, and the coexistence and gaps between color fields produce effects of advancement, recession, extension, or reduction. The canvas boundaries no longer function as closed borders but participate in organizing a dynamic space.

The canvas becomes a field of forces marking a fundamental shift: space is no longer represented but produced. These tense relationships release a perceptible energy and vibration, where each color, through its intensity and position, creates a shifting balance that continuously guides the viewer’s gaze.