The Chiaroscuro Exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection Sheds Light on the Shadows with 5 artworks

In painting, the chiaroscuro style dates back to ancient Greece. Since the 16th century, artists like Caravaggio, Goya, and De La Tour have become masters of this technique. The Bourse de Commerce has made it a style that contemporary art updates.

“On ne part pas d’une feuille blanche, mais d’une feuille noire pour faire jaillir la lumière et les œuvres,” beautifully says Emma Lavigne at the end of the two-hour visit. She is the curator of the “Chiaroscuro” exhibition presented at the Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection in Paris until August 24th. Twenty-seven contemporary artists experiment with chiaroscuro on canvas, in video, marble, or bronze, whether in giant or minimalist formats. About a hundred works and a philosophical vision of the world that artists sublimate. Names like Dubuffet, Moulène, Nauman, Richier, or Tanguy feature alongside Bill Viola, Giacometti, or Parreno. A spotlight, a black light shine, on five of them. Too much light blinds, so let’s walk towards the darkness.

1 Pierre Huyghe in the desert

In the grand Rotunda, with an arc of concrete by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando, Pierre Huygue’s film “Camata” finds an ideal projection space. In the Atacama Desert, Chile, robots slowly move around a skeleton. These are believed to be the remains of a soldier from a distant war, centuries ago. A body without a burial. The robots place amulets and glass spheres around the bleached bones. Filmed for 200 hours, 24/7, in harsh light or dark night, cameras guided by an algorithm invented by Pierre Huygue capture this curious ritual. A funereal ballet but not fatal. Archaism and technology blend in this work.

2 Victor Man, the contemporary chiaroscuro

On the floor above, gallery 3 welcomes Victor Man, a 52-year-old Romanian artist. He is the contemporary painter of chiaroscuro. Green dominates his canvases. Figurative portraits of serene faces imbued with melancholy. These are vanities, between religious paintings and strange visions. Mysterious feminine faces displaying a skull, or embracing mourning. Classic, right? Like Velasquez or Greco would have done, says Jean-Marie Gallais, curator of the exhibition.

3 The Polke chapel

Certainly the most impressive room. Gallery 2, where silence reigns, with seven very large format paintings on a steel structure surrounding the visitor. Thin translucent canvas lit from behind appears to float. “Axial Age,” a masterpiece by Sigmar Polke created in 2005-2007, suggests the golden age of humanity, according to the exhibition catalog.

While walking through the vast gallery, chiaroscuro is achieved through movement. Visitors feel the changing light, from transparency to opacity, with characters emerging from the bronze colored canvases. They truly resemble stained glass for an art chapel.

4 Laura Lamiel’s work in the window

At the Bourse de Commerce, the grand rotunda is surrounded by a narrow corridor. 24 showcases feature 24 works by Laura Lamiel. Visitors can walk through this retrospective of the meticulous, elegant, and profound work of this French artist born in 1942. Behind these windows lie textiles, neon lights, paintings, and small or large decors as if born from the artist’s mind.

By walking past, cabinets of curiosities of Laura Lamiel’s work are gradually revealed. According to Alexandra Bordes, exhibition curator, the showcases display 40 years of research and questioning, reflecting a kind of thought laboratory where painful questions are sometimes faced.

5 Danh Vo’s hybrids

Sometimes an artist’s nationality influences the work. This is the case for Danh Vo, a 50-year-old artist of Vietnamese and Danish nationality, who migrated as a child to Denmark as one of the “boat people” who fled Vietnam. His work embodies the turmoil of exile and the assimilation of cultures to create new languages, thoughts, and poetry. Material choices like marble, stone, and glass tell the story of his existence.

The Clair-obscur exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce Pinault collection in Paris will be open until August 24, 2026.

[Context: The Chiaroscuro exhibition is a contemporary art show that explores the interplay of light and darkness in various artistic mediums.] [Fact Check: The details provided in the article about the artists and their works are accurate and reflect the themes of the exhibition.]