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Nathalie Du Pasquier

Jun 2 – Jun 30, 2020

Nathalie Du Pasquier's paintings depict the dazzling complexity of simple things. ​

A founding member of the legendary Memphis Group in Milan during the early 1980s, Du Pasquier abandoned her work as a designer in 1987 and dedicated herself exclusively to painting.

Since 2012, Du Pasquier’s work has become increasingly abstract, blurring the borders between painting and model, haptic and optic, representation and the real. Beginning with two of her most recent paintings, made in her Milan studio this past spring, Spaces Between Things traces the artist’s decade-long evolution from still-life painting toward a language of pure abstraction.

Nathalie Du Pasquier, the sky outside, 2020, oil on canvas, 50 cm × 50 cm (19-11/16" × 19-11/16")
Nathalie Du Pasquier, from the balcony, 2020, oil on canvas, 50 cm × 50 cm (19-11/16" × 19-11/16")
Nathalie Du Pasquier, bright books blue glass, 2003, oil on canvas, 100 cm × 100 cm (39-3/8" × 39-3/8")

For twenty-five years, between 1987 and 2012, Du Pasquier painted carefully observed, figurative still-life scenes depicting arrangements of objects as well as painted wooden constructions that she created herself in her studio.

Nathalie Du Pasquier, A white little construction with 3 colorful pieces, 2012, oil on canvas, 100 cm × 100 cm (39-3/8" × 39-3/8")
Nathalie Du Pasquier, TRAVAIL VOLONTAIRE, 2014, oil on canvas, 100 cm × 100 cm (39-3/8" × 39-3/8")
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Nathalie Du Pasquier's studio in Milan
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Untitled, 2012, coloured pencil on paper, 70 cm × 50 cm (27-9/16" × 19-11/16")

In 2012, Du Pasquier began a series of drawings in colored pencil, in which she liberated her forms from physical models for the first time.​

Inventing form on paper allowed the artist to create geometries “that would never stand” in real life.

Nathalie Du Pasquier, Untitled, 2015, coloured pencil on paper, 50 cm × 70 cm (19-11/16" × 27-9/16")
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Nathalie Du Pasquier, Untitled, 2016, oil on canvas, 100 cm × 100 cm (39-3/8" × 39-3/8")
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Untitled, 2016, oil on canvas, 150 cm × 150 cm (59-1/16" × 59-1/16")
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Installation view, Nathalie Du Pasquier: the strange order of things 2, Pace Gallery, Geneva, Jan 20 – Mar 18, 2020 © Nathalie Du Pasquier
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Untitled, 2019, oil on canvas with painted wood, 100 cm × 100 cm (39-3/8" × 39-3/8"), overall 50 cm × 100 cm (19-11/16" × 39-3/8"), wood 50 cm × 100 cm (19-11/16" × 39-3/8"), painting

Whenever and wherever she exhibits, Du Pasquier ​smells the space and transforms it into a natural setting to host her creatures.

Luca Lo Pinto, Director, MACRO, Rome
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Installation view, Nathalie Du Pasquier: the strange order of things 2, Pace Gallery, Geneva, Jan 20 – Mar 18, 2020 © Nathalie Du Pasquier
Nathalie Du Pasquier, UPSIDE DOWN WITH T, 2019, oil on canvas, 100 cm × 150 cm (39-3/8" × 59-1/16")
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Nathalie Du Pasquier, Untitled, 2019, oil on canvas, 100 cm × 100 cm (39-3/8" × 39-3/8")
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Untitled, 2019, oil on canvas, 25 cm × 35 cm (9-13/16" × 13-3/4")
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Nathalie Du Pasquier's studio in Milan
Nathalie Du Pasquier, OUTSIDE, 2019, oil on canvas, 100 cm × 100 cm (39-3/8" × 39-3/8")
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Nathalie Du Pasquier, The strange order of things 2, 2017-2019, hand painted case containing drawing, two prints, and books, 32.5 cm × 23.5 cm × 5.5 cm (12-13/16" × 9-1/4" × 2-3/16")
Nathalie Du Pasquier, Marmo, 2018, mahogany structure, seat in wood veneer, back in printed textile, 146 cm × 58 cm × 40 cm (57-1/2" × 22-13/16" × 15-3/4")
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Nathalie Du Pasquier, TORRE NUMERO DUE, 2020, painted bricks, 293.4 cm × 142.5 cm × 142.5 cm (9' 7-1/2" × 56-1/8" × 56-1/8") created in collaboration with Mutina for Art, Modena, Italy

For her 2019 exhibition at Mutina in Modena, Italy, Du Pasquier created a series of towers constructed from hand-painted glazed bricks.​

“The starting point is the brick, a fundamental architectural module since the dawn of human history, and a long-term recurring subject in her works, including her paintings,” explains exhibition curator Sarah Cosulich. “Du Pasquier delves into brick in its physical and conceptual essence, as an element linked to the earth and the tradition of ceramics."​

Nathalie Du Pasquier, TORRE NUMERO TRE, 2020, painted bricks, 234.2 cm × 142.5 cm × 142.5 cm (92-3/16" × 56-1/8" × 56-1/8") created in collaboration with Mutina for Art, Modena, Italy
Not quite architecture, not quite sculpture, Du Pasquier’s towers suggest both an architecture of exuberant pointillism and the decorative sensibility of gridded minimalist compositions.

Oliver Shultz, Curatorial Director, Pace Gallery

Read Shultz's full essay on this exhibition here.

To inquire about works by Nathalie Du Pasquier, please email inquiries@pacegallery.com.

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Nathalie Du Pasquier

Nathalie Du Pasquier worked as a designer as part of the Memphis Group until 1987, producing patterns, textiles, decorated surfaces, and furniture. Since then, her main focus and passion has been painting. Over the past thirty-five years, Du Pasquier has been intrigued by the relationship between objects and the spaces in which they are installed. This ongoing investigation has manifested in paintings, sculptures, designs, patterns, constructions, carpets, books, and ceramics—constantly acting between the representational and non-representational, the tangible and intangible, reality and imagination, and two- and three-dimensional forms.

Learn More

  • Past, Nathalie Du Pasquier, Spaces Between Things, Jun 2, 2020