Clair-obscur

Exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris, 4 March – 24 August 2026

A feature of art since the Mannerist and Baroque periods, chiaroscuro is not merely a pictorial technique of the past, but a visual language that spans the centuries and is constantly reinventing itself, revealing the darker side of humanity and the world. It thus sets the tone for a whole swathe of artistic creation, becoming a renewed visual and symbolic language, a narrative device, a philosophical principle. It expresses both the materiality of light and the shadowed realms of the unconscious, transforming our relationship with the visible and the invisible.

This exhibition catalogue, whose title is borrowed from the famous 16th-century chiaroscuro, reveals how artists, from modern art to the present day, explore the shadows to shed light on the present. Several modern artists revisit the legacy of the old masters, as seen in the dark and tormented figures of Germaine Richier, Alberto Giacometti and Jean Dubuffet. Among contemporary artists, this exploration continues notably with Sigmar Polke and his ‘hallucinatory chapel’, Axial Age. It is also evident in the work of Philippe Parreno, who offers a sensitive reinterpretation of Goya’s La Quinta del Sordo paintings.