ARLES.- Jean-Luc Mylayne has spent his life going out into the world to photograph birds in rural settings, where he invests weeks and indeed months in order to obtain the composition he seeks.
The Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles presents an ensemble of 39 works created between 1979 and 2008, organised into nine sections according to their relationship with the light and the locality, and playing from the start on a progressive invasion of the azure blue of the sky.
Printed as a single original, each photograph is silent about the place it was taken, but gives its date, underlining the length of time needed to gain access to the “other” that is the bird. And as the artist explains, the bird is “the proof that harmony exists on this earth, providing we take the time to tune in to the mysteries that surround us.”
Born in 1946 in France, Jean-Luc Mylayne has enjoyed numerous exhibitions abroad, chiefly in the United States. His oeuvre comprises fewer than 500 photographs. The artist is particularly familiar with the open-air studios that are Texas and New Mexico.
The Autumn of Paradise. Jean-Luc Mylayne, presented on the first floor of the Fondation, offers a unique opportunity to discover photographic tableaux of a rare technical sophistication and poetry.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue, which has been produced in close collaboration with Jean- Luc and Mylène Mylayne and authors Jacqueline Burckhardt, Bice Curiger, Christie Davis and Leo Lencsés. The Autumn of Paradise. Jean-Luc Mylayne is published by the Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles and Hatje Cantz.
Jean-Luc Mylayne's work has been presented in major institutions such as the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris (1995), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid (2010–2011), the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe (2004), the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and Parrish Art Museum in New York (2007–2009), and at the Art Institute, the Arts Club and Millennium Park Lurie Garden, all three in Chicago (2015). It can also be discovered in the Sprüth Magers and Gladstone galleries.
From Arles, the exhibition is travelling to the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau, Switzerland, and the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany.
Exhibition curator: Bice Curiger
