Bernard Aubertin

Biography of Bernard Aubertin - Artist and Painter and his Red Monochromes

Born in 1934 in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south of Paris, Bernard Aubertin was an important artist of the Zero movement.

Aubertin began his studies at the State School of Decoration. He later approached both the Futurism and Cubism movements as a self-taught artist.

A milestone in the career of artist Bernard Aubertin was his meeting with the French artist Yves Klein in 1957. The following year, Aubertin started to make his famous monochrome canvases, beginning his fruitful relationship with the colour red that would stay with him throughout his artistic production.

His first series as a monochrome painter began with the Rouge Total series. The artist's choice to create works in red has a deep and very personal meaning; it is in this colour that Aubertin rediscovers light, the original image of fire. Berard Aubert in wants to create art that is objective and where the work itself becomes a place full of energy.

Following his study of the colour red, Aubertin decided to always make monochrome red canvases by animating them with various objects. From here he expanded his production of the best-known monochrome canvases, Tableaux Feu (fire paintings), with objects such as nails, making Tableaux Clous, iron wire, making the series Tableaux Fil de Fer, matches, with the series Parcours d'Allumettes, and various other materials such as candles and iron nets.

Starting in the 1960s, Aubertin introduced fire in the realisation of his works to physically manifest the explosion of the colour red. The destructive nature of fire within Bernard Aubertin's works becomes a creator of rebirth, as many of his works are abstract compositions in which matches are used, which, once lit, will create spontaneous variations generated by the nature of the flame. The viewer, observing a performance by Aubertin in which these works are realised and destroyed, is involved in the process of transformation that these works are subjected to.

The artistic research of Bernard Aubertin developed between the 1980s and 1990s through new performances in which the artist set cars and pianos on fire. During the last years of his artistic production, Aubertin abandoned the iconic red colour of his monochromes and replaced it with white, black and gold.

From 1990 he lived and worked in Germany. Bernard Aubertin died in 2015 at the age of 81 years.

Zero, the movement of silence and new beginnings

Among the founding members of the international Zero movement, Bernard Aubertin shared the thought that art should not be a language but should manifest itself in an austere and simple manner. Aubertin's red works gave impetus to an energy and vibration that was emblematic of the movement.

The movement included numerous German artists, including founders Heinz Mack and Otto Piene; French artists such as Arman, Yves Klein and Bernard Aubertin; and Italian artists such as Lucio Fontana and Piero Manzoni.

The artists of the Zero movement immediately began to study and create monochromatic works to the extent that they created an exhibition in 1962 that dealt with both monochromy and colour, vibration, light and movement. Founder Otto Piene describes the movement as a zone of silence and pure possibility for a new beginning.

"The aim of monochrome is to impregnate the painted surface with a pictorial Essence. Monochrome confirms the impotence of lines, forms, colours, compositions, etc... to reveal the pictorial Essence, the only quality of the painting. Psychological references are abandoned, they only play an intermediary role, they belong to the past. The problem of the material is very important: is it the preparation of a sublime mortar? Colour. Characteristics: aesthetic attraction, fascination, movement, light, vibration, psychic effect, tactile presence. Monochrome preserves colour's absolute value. The use of a single colour sums up the laws of space. Space is the product of a single colour.

It is not so much the universe of violence emanating from red as a psychological force that captures my interest. The movement, the light implicit in this colour are the arguments that justify its use in my eyes. The simple belief in a poetic meaning of dynamism legitimises, for me, the continuity of its use. Monochrome à plat is a void full of tension, unconscious, subconscious and magnetic fluids meet there". - Bernard Aubertin

Fer Brûlé - the series

The Fer Brûlé series by artist Bernard Aubertin encapsulates the essence of his artistic production. Dominated by red colours, the works are mainly on sheet metal, which is burnt so that it can be shaped by flames to create a flow of vital energy.

Aubertin, in fact, has always maintained that the work is not only what is burnt, rather the artist attaches importance to the process of combustion and not the outcome. The forms that are thus created are then emphasised by the red colour that accompanies the entire series.

"For me, the painting is the intensity. Red is intensity, it is blood, life, dynamism, vitality, energy... " - Bernard Aubertin

Bernard Aubertin - Prices and Value

If you are looking for Aubertin prices, value and artworks for sale, Deodato Arte Gallery in Milan will offer you a complete and reliable service.

On our website you can find works by Aubertin, the artist who contributed to the foundation and diffusion of the Zero movement.

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