Nathalie Du Pasquier: Arrangements 1993-2023

Arrangements 1993-2023 is an exhibition of drawings and works on paper by Nathalie Du Pasquier (b. 1957 in Bordeaux, France, lives and works in Milan), made over the past three decades. The choice to begin in the 1990s, following her time as co-founder and partner of the Memphis Group, was intentional by the artist, as this body of work is about the drawings themselves and not about any specific project related to her time working in design. When asked why the year 1993 as the beginning date, Du Pasquier writes: “In 1993 I felt safe enough to draw in a different way without the fear of continuing to touch the things I had wanted to leave behind.” It marked a moment of transition from working within the framework of the Memphis Group to working as a painter, which she officially began doing in 1987. Du Pasquier writes, “There are drawings made during vacations when I can’t paint, which describe objects around me, there are drawings that tell stories, sometimes with characters, there are drawings of things that I would like to see, there are also, and these are more recent, abstract drawings which are a bit like paintings, still lifes/landscapes of shapes and colours.”

While the exhibition spans a specific 30-year time frame, the work is not hung chronologically, but rather in groups of compositions that intuitively find a connection “like an extended family that enhances their meaning.” Including ink, coloured pencil, brush, black and in colour, large and small works are presented without frames, creating an immediacy with the drawings as if looking at the pages of a book. These “arrangements’ lead to new meanings and conversations within the work, something the artist was interested in creating. For his 2003 book “Arranging Things,” Leonard Koren had reproductions of Du Pasquier’s compositions alongside his text. This connection between image and word extends to this current exhibition as well, as if composing new arrangements and new interactions. In addition to the drawings, Du Pasquier has selected various words and phrases by French author Pierre Mac Orlan and French humourist, Chaval, which have been interspersed throughout the installation. Both of whom have a personal significance to the artist.

For Du Pasquier, these drawings are complete works, not studies or sketches in a work-in-progress sense. She writes in an interview with the curator, “My drawings are not sketches or drafts for paintings but finished works. Unlike paintings, sketches are done much more quickly and do not have to fit into a sequence of paintings, they are more casual. There are periods when I don’t draw, others when I draw a lot, and others when I make super precise drawings in pencil that look like paintings. But ink drawings are something else because it’s such a different medium. These drawings are the result of more intuitive gestures which in the end can be more mysterious. The mark which results from these movements is unexpected, it’s a more adventurous technique.”

In the summer of 2024, Nathalie Du Pasquier will also be featured at Villa Noailles with a second exhibition as part of Design Parade Hyères. Arrangements 1993-2023 is on view through April 27, 2024.

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