TOTEM, 1985 Bernard Quentin

“Writing, intimate signs and volumetric words are decisive for his multiform work. The true character of a creator lies in the coherence of his process and the force of his obsessions.”

Jean Leymarie (Monographie de Bernard Quentin, 1991, P13)

 

Throughout the 1980s, Bernard Quentin became interested in anamorphosis applied to writing. Here, depending on the angle chosen by the viewer of Totem, it is possible to read the word sculpted in steel. From another point of observation, the letters may appear to lack meaning. The artist conducted similar plastic research, for example with Saint-Germain des Prés, Écriture (Writing), and Hidden Order (Ordre caché), which are medium-sized sculptures. Quentin also indulges in creating words through anamorphosis in the natural landscape, as shown in Nymphéas (1984), a tribute to Claude Monet in the fields of Giverny.