Grenier, C: Othoniel

The first monograph in English devoted to Jean-Michel Othoniel, this book follows the footsteps of a singular and secretive artist. An artist who has a passion for all sorts of metamorphoses, sublimations and transmutations, Jean-Michel Othoniel (Saint-Etienne, 1964) has a predilection for materials with reversible properties. His first gained recognition with a series of sculptures made of sulfur, exhibited at Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992. He is one of the few artists to combine a rigorous artistic approach with a poetic sensitivity. Possessing a rare ability to make use of the beauty of his materials, this volume follows the evolution of Othoniel's atypical approach. Beyond the seductiveness of form, he creates a world inhabited by dreams and enchantment, but also haunted by suffering and melancholy. The artist, who entered into popular favour with his "Kiosk for Night Birds" for the Palais-Royal-Musée du Louvre metro station in Paris, has exhibited widely and received commissions both in France and abroad.