Claude Closky (born 22 May 1963) is a French

Contemporary Artist Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...

who lives and works in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, France.

Reception

Closky won the "Grand prix des Arts plastiques" (1999) and the

Marcel Duchamp Prize The Marcel Duchamp Prize (in French : ''Prix Marcel Duchamp'') is an annual award given to a young artist by the Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l'Art Français (ADIAF). The winner receives €35,000 personally and up to €30,000 ...

(2005) awarded by the ADIAF. Dike Blair wrote in ''

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notabl ...

'' Magazine that "The lightness of Closky's art belies the depth of its absurdist heredity. Working in a post-modernist mode, Closky's art works combine aspects of the

Situationists The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

, Beckett, Tall, Daniel Buren, and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

Life and career

Claude Closky has no formal training as a visual artist. He entered the ENSAD (Ecole National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) in 1982, but quit at the end of the first year to co-found ''The Ripoulin Brothers'', a street artist collective, with Bla+Bla+Bla,

Nina Childress Nina Childress (born Christine Childress, 1961) is a French-American visual artist, based in Paris, France. Life and work Born in Pasadena, California, United States, she studied in Paris at the Ecole National Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs ( EN ...

, Jean Faucheur,

Pierre Huyghe Pierre Huyghe (born 11 September 1962) is a French artist who works in a variety of media from films and sculptures to public interventions and living systems. Education Pierre Huyghe (pronounced ''hweeg'') was born in Paris in 1962. He lives ...

, Manhu, Ox, Trois carrés. In 1988, he left the group to develop his independent work, using voluntarily poor means such as drawing and printed matter. He has participated in the Biennials of Lyon (1995), Sydney (1996),

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

(2000),

València Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area also ...

(2001),

Sharjah Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Sharjah is the capital ...

(2005),

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

(2017). In 2000, the

Mudam The Grand Duke Jean Museum of Modern Art (french: Musée d'art moderne Grand-Duc Jean), abbreviated to Mudam, is a museum of modern art in Luxembourg City, in southern Luxembourg. The museum stands on the site of the old Fort Thüngen, on the so ...

(Luxembourg Art Museum) commissioned him to conceive and manage its website, for which he made a magazine and a gallery dedicated to the internet. The site was launched at the Luxembourg Pavilion in the 2001,

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. It presented specific works by

Heath Bunting Heath Bunting (born 1966) is a British contemporary artist. Based in Bristol, he is a co-founder of the website ''irational.org'', and was one of the early practitioners in the 1990s of Net.art. Bunting's work is based on creating open and demo ...

, François Curlet,

Pierre Leguillon Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

Aleksandra Mir Aleksandra Mir (born 1967) is a Swedish-American contemporary artist known for her collaborative installations and projects. Her work deals with travel, time, placehood, language, gender, identity, locality, nationality, globality, mobility, con ...

, Peter Kogler,

David Shrigley David John Shrigley (born 17 September 1968) is a British visual artist. He lived and worked in Glasgow, Scotland for 27 years before moving to Brighton, England in 2015. Early life and education Shrigley was born 17 September 1968 in Maccles ...

, among others. Since 2005, he has taught at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scienc ...

in Paris. In 2012, he curated ''This & There'', an exhibition to celebrate the tenth year of the ''Pavilion,

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

Laboratory for Creation'' (Paris) which presented the work of 74 artists in 74 different spaces. In 2020, he curated ''X'' at the Frac Pays de la Loire.

Work

The work of Claude Closky is mainly immaterial. Language is his model to articulate images, text, numbers, and sounds collected in our environment, or made in his studio. Although Closky is reluctant to produce objects and spectacular effects, his work still addresses issues about visibility and space appropriation. Claude Closky's projects always find alternative ways to emancipate themselves from the formats imposed by the sites where they are exhibited. He seeks to point out the contradictions of our contemporary society and its representations, but also to question the role of art as producer of a cultural consensus and set of values. His works confront and question our environment, the conditions and benefits of artistic production, its relation to an audience.

Selected exhibitions

Selected publications

References

External links

Claude Closky offline works

Claude Closky news

Claude Closky online works

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by

Lynne Cooke Lynne Cooke is an Australian-born art scholar. Since August 2014 she has been the Senior Curator, Special Projects in Modern Art, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Early life and education Born in Geelong, Australia, Cooke recei ...

about Closky's commission for the

Dia Art Foundation Dia Art Foundation is a nonprofit organization that initiates, supports, presents, and preserves art projects. It was established in 1974 by Philippa de Menil, the daughter of Houston arts patron Dominique de Menil and an heiress to the Schlumb ...

, 1997.
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by Dike Blair about Closky's art pieces for the web, 1999.
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by

Marie Muracciole Marie Muracciole is a writer and curator based in Paris and Beirut. Early life Marie Muracciole studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She shifted her visual art practice to writing in 1991. Career Muracciole ...

about Closky's exhibition at Museo Madre,

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, 2007.
Text by Marie Muracciole about Closky's exhibitions ''Laloli'' and ''Rarori'', 2010

''Square One'', text by Katy Siegel and Paul Mattick, 2007

Internet Site of the Musée d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Mudam Luxembourg, conceived by Claude Closky, 2000–2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Closky, Claude 1963 births Living people French mixed-media artists École des Beaux-Arts faculty École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs alumni French contemporary artists New media artists