Abbaye de Beaulieu : Les minis-conférences

Initiated when the monument reopened, these small conferences are an opportunity to discover in more depth a theme or a concept linked to the abbey, the monument, the modern art collection or even the rose garden.

Thursday, July 17 by Jean-François Arnal: “On the Beaulieu Abbey Collection: The Thin Lines Between Figurative and Abstract”

Figuration is based on an identifiable representation of the external world. It can be realistic, naturalistic, or stylized, but it always maintains a direct link with visible reality. In contrast, abstraction renounces any direct reference to the tangible world. While these two notions have long been considered opposed, art history shows that they interpenetrate and nourish one another, reflecting a permanent quest for renewal and exploration. The works in the Brache-Bonnefoi collection provide an illustration of this.

Thursday, July 24 by Saïd Benjelloun: “Arabic calligraphy or the sacredness of the word”

Whether it is the divine word, that of the prophet of Islam or that of poets, Arabic calligraphy has illustrated and magnified them across the ages, languages ​​and countries, with multiple styles and on different media.

Thursday, July 31 by Jean-Dominique Fleury: "Writings in gray"

In the 1960s, glass painting was taught as it was in the 19th century: brushes, nets for the line and badger for the modeling. Moreover, Chinese ideograms, Arabic writing, so many signs were halfway between image and writing. The visual lyricism of Apollinaire and "words in freedom" Marinetti did the rest... The grayness also found its appropriate instruments.

Thursday, August 7 by Françoise Blanc: “Body writing, tattoos and artistic practice, rediscovery of primitive arts?”

The rise of tattoos in contemporary society, whether they are simple decorative attributes and personal style or objects of artistic practices and performances, raises questions: in the age of dematerialized images, updating ancient symbols, do they represent a field of discoveries of the "first" peoples to open the passage towards new writing practices much more anchored to the body, to memory? As were the works of modern artists and their collectors...