Roland Cognet - Regard d'artiste
Roland Cognet catalyzes the four primary elements - mineral, vegetable, animal and human - in one sculptural body. This formed one of the major themes in his work of the early 80s.
Roland Cognet catalyzes the four primary elements - mineral, vegetable, animal and human - in one sculptural body. This formed one of the major themes in his work of the early 80s.
At the Manoir de Kernault, he produced four installations: three sculptures and one video, which have in common the artist’s work on trees: poplars, redwoods, sycamores...
" At times, a source of terror, a perpetual source of emotions, Roland Cognet's trees lose the verticality that leads them directly to the sky, tracing the connection between the earth and manking, their heritage and nature. The artist would hae us believe that it is he who shapes this material, when it is in fan sculpted by time, in the same way that time if the author of his oeuvre."
" Interested less by history than by time, less by lore than by life, Roland Cognet does not fear anachronisms. In a single glance or movement, he highlights the two ends of labour chain. This genealogy, today hidden, uncovers, however, the close link that man enjoys with his natural environment. Before Roland Cognet's artworks, the visitor is struck by the dizzying shortcut that immediately connects the tree to the beam, the tree trunk to the plank, and indeed even the scion to the monument. Through this gesture, the artist expresses the notion that trees, especially proudlooking ones, never die. Better still, they can move."
Philippe Ifri
| Reference | 9782363060884 |
| Number of pages | 60 |
| Size | 20 x 25 cm |
| ISBN | 9782363060884 |
| Justification | Bound |
| Technique | 40 color illustrations |
| Publication date | 2013 |
Cognet (Roland)
Roland Cognet lives at the foot of the Chaîne des Puys mountain range in the Auvergne region and teaches at the École Supérieure d’art de Clermont-Métropole. At the beginning of the 1980s, Roland Cognet set himself a challenge, to incorporate into the same sculptural body of work the four “kingdoms of nature” – minerals, plants, animals, and man. Roland Cognet has succeeded in this mission thanks to his skilled craftsmanship. While his oeuvre has since opened itself up to other registers, Roland Cognet’s objectives or roadmap have remained unchanged. Roland Cognet positions himself in relation to other French and American sculptors of concrete or tangible works, including Mark Di Suvero, Tony Grand, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, and Martin Puryear. Parallels may also be drawn between Roland Cognet’s work and the oeuvre of two artists and close acquaintances of Cognet’s, Michael Fried and Étienne-Martin.
