Art Paris: Art & Craft By Nicolas Trembley

Welcome to Art Paris 2024, where artistic discovery takes centre stage. With a diverse array of galleries from across the globe, this year’s edition explores themes of ‘Art & Craft’. Curated by Nicolas Trembley, the fair promises to showcase both emerging talents and forgotten pioneers. Join us as we delve into the intersection of tradition and innovation with Nicolas Trembley, renowned for his exploration of contemporary art and craftsmanship.

hube: As a curator with a particular interest in the intersection of contemporary art and craftsmanship, how do you perceive the significance of events like Art Paris for showcasing themes such as ‘Art & Craft’ in the contemporary art world? What sets this thematic focus apart from other presentations at art fairs?

Nicolas Trembley: Art Paris is a great platform to advocate such a theme. The growing interest in craft at large is often presented in institutions so the fact that a contemporary art fair focuses on the theme and shows historical and contemporary works is important today. The collectors and visitors can discover a selection of pieces that are for sale. The gallerists can inform them about the artists.

h: With ‘Art & Craft’ highlighting the historical and cultural significance of artisanal practices, could you elaborate on how this theme reflects the broader influence of craftsmanship on contemporary art today, both in terms of technique and conceptual approach?

NT: The market functions like waves and sometimes certain practices are inspiring and sometimes not. At the moment there is a strong resurgence of interest towards pieces in textiles or ceramics that we did not see so much a decade ago. The rediscovery of art practices that stayed out of the big art history opens new discussions and replaces those works next to the traditional mediums such as paintings or sculptures. But craft practices are old and were very important in movements like the Bauhaus.

h: As someone deeply engaged with the intersections of contemporary art and artisanal practices, what challenges and opportunities do you see for artists, curators, and critics in promoting a more inclusive and expansive understanding of art in today’s cultural climate? How does the ‘Art & Craft’ theme address these dynamics?

NT: The projects I work for go beyond simply showcasing crafts and their beauty. It explores the political and feminist implications of crafts and how they can be used to challenge and subvert dominant power narratives in art. I always cite the productions of Gee’s Bend, women who were descendants of slaves in Alabama and who produced important abstract textiles while participating in the civil rights movements. Those notions are important today because we realise that the art history we know is more complex and rich than we were told. Modern art excluded numerous practices that co-existed quite happily, at the beginning of the 20th century. It compartmentalised the different mediums and established a hierarchy between them while marginalising some techniques and groups of artists or even throwing them on the scrap heap of history. Today, we are living in a time when we are reassessing a heritage that brings together the arts, popular traditions and folklore and this focus provides the demonstration.

h: How does the ‘Art & Craft’ theme at Art Paris showcase this distinction and emphasise the value of handmade craftsmanship in today’s contemporary art scene? With Art Paris focusing on showcasing a significant number of French artists, how do you perceive the influence of French art and culture on the global art scene today?

NT: There is a strong French tradition of crafts that is related to fashion for example. Numerous luxury groups invest in preserving this knowledge of what is called ‘The métiers d’art’ and that is great. But it’s related to luxury goods, and I wish that we could have support for other mediums such as basketry for example. Loewe who belongs to LVMH is doing a great job with their Craft Prize. They have so much power in communication that many people are aware of the craft practices today through them and then it attracts new people to the field and that is wonderful. 

I show a new generation of French artists or artists who live in France that produced fantastic works for Art Paris as if it was for an exhibition like Joël Andrianomearisoa who has created a series of tapestries working on a low warp loom, a traditional method of hand weaving that has been used since the Middle Ages in the French town of Aubusson, but they are done in Tunisia. Or Jeanne Vicerial who made history when she became the first person in France to obtain a Sciences, Arts, Creation and Research PhD in the field of fashion design. Her thesis questioned the mechanisms at work in the design of contemporary clothing and proposed an alternative to the made-to-measure/ready-to-wear dichotomy associated with fast-fashion culture.

h: The focus on artists like Sheila Hicks and Karina Bisch underscores the connection between art and craft, particularly in challenging distinctions between fine arts, design, and decorative arts. How does the ‘Art & Craft’ theme exemplify the blurring of boundaries and highlight the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary artistic practices?

NT: Art & Craft had a major influence on the History of art, design and architecture. At the start of the 20th century, it paved the way for other movements around the world, such as Constructivism (Russia), Bauhaus (Germany) and Mingei (Japan), trends which continue to inspire the contemporary art scene today. Sheila Hicks, one of the artists in this focus, is a living example. Hicks studied under Josef Albers at Yale and explored pre-Columbian textiles during her many years in Mexico. She is a heiress to a modernist spirit that pays no heed to distinctions between the fine arts, design and the decorative arts. In the same way, Karina Bisch references numerous women artists who made the connection between art and craft. Examples include Gunta Stölzl, who played a decisive role in the development of the Bauhaus weaving workshop and Russian constructivist Varvara Stepanova.

h: Considering the current dynamics of the art market, what advice would you offer to collectors and galleries participating in events like Art Paris to maximize their experience and outcomes?

NT: I think galleries understand the power of craft and include more and more artists that work this way. I would recommend the public to rediscover the international tapestry movement that developed in the Sixties and is evoked by the presence of pioneering artists, such as Magdalena Abakanowicz and Barbara Levittoux-Swiderska from the Polish school and Catalan artist Josep Grau-Garriga. The French ceramics movements from La Borne have been rediscovered and are represented by Jean and Jacqueline Lerat. I think people who buy those works today are making good investments, their prices only go up!