Nicolas de Crécy: Le Manchot mélomane et Visa transit. Huberty & Breyne Gallery. Brussels. February 7-March 7, 2020.
Over the next month, the Huberty & Breyne Gallery in Brussels dedicates the entirety of its 1000 m2 display space to the work of Nicolas de Crécy for a selling exhibition. Featuring a collection of work that debuted at La Ferme du Buisson in France during the PULP Festival in 2017 but appearing now for the first time in Brussels, the exhibition is composed of two parts as indicated by its tautological title.
The first part, "La Manchot mélomane" (
The armless music lover),
is an homage to the pianist Paul Wittgenstein - the brother of the
famous philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein - who lost his right arm during
the first World War. Through an impressive combination of sculptures,
charcoals, oil paintings, and even installations, de Crécy evokes the imagined world of the pianist as a site of dialectic forces that constantly asks the visitor to contemplate the relationship of the individual pieces in the exhibition with one another.
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Piano minéral (2015), made of wood, stones and pebbles
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| Le Manchot mélomane |
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| Le Manchot mélomane |
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| The thirteen pieces that comprise Suite pour piano (2014). Water and aquatint etchings on paper. |
Suite pour piano as a sequential read from right to left.
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Instrument de musique avec carte somato-sensorielle motorié (2015). Installation.
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| Obus en mouvement - 1914 (2015). Charcoal on paper. |
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| Le Manchot mélomane |
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| Le Manchot mélomane |
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| Le Manchot mélomane |
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| Le Manchot mélomane |
The second part of the exhibition features original pages and drafts in pencil and aquarelle taken from de Crécy's recent bande dessinée album
Visa Transit, published by Futuropolis. The work on display, presented in the back room of the gallery, offers a glimpse into de Crécy's creative comics process as he lays out the story of a road trip based on his memories of a pre-Fall of the Wall Europe.
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| Visa transit. Nicolas de Crécy. Futuropolis, 2019. |
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| Visa transit |
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| Visa transit |
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| Visa transit |
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| Tête blanche (2015). Sculpture, resin painted with oil. |
Near the entrance hall of the gallery is the gift shop area, which offered several limited lithographs signed and numbered by de Crécy. A deluxe monograph book served as a catalog for the exhibition, covering the entirety of de Crécy's career leading up to the works on display.
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| Lithographic prints for sale and the de Crécy monograph book |
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| Bibliographic monograph published by MEL Publisher (2016) |
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| Table of contents of the monograph |
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The
press communique for the show, as well as all of the works on display for
Le Manchot mélomane et Visa transit, are available for closer inspection at the website of the Huberty and Breyne Gallery.
Nick Nguyen
All photos taken by Nick Nguyen
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