https://www.amazon.co.uk/Christian-Boltanski-Work-People-Halifax/dp/1900081067/?tag=prabook0b-20
1995
(Published on the occasion of the artist's sixty-fifth bir...)
Published on the occasion of the artist's sixty-fifth birthday, "The Possible Life of Christian Boltanski", written in the form of a book-length interview (which the artist likens to a "psychoanalysis" or "confession") with the art historian Catherine Grenier, is Boltanski's oral autobiography.
https://www.amazon.com/Possible-Life-Christian-Boltanski/dp/0878467467/?tag=2022091-20
2007
filmmaker painter Photographer sculptor
Ethnicity:
Christian's father was of Jewish descent, while his mother was from Corsica.
Christian Boltanski was born on September 6, 1944, in Paris, France. His father, Etienne Boltanski, came to France from Russia, and his mother, Annie (Lauran) Boltanski, originated from Corsica. Luc Boltanski is Christian's brother. The writer Christophe Boltanski is Christian's nephew.
Christian's early years were marked by the Nazi occupation of France, which forced his father to go into hiding. He left school around the age of 12. After a patchy education and no formal training in art, Boltanski started painting as a teenager in 1958. His early paintings depicted historical events or, on occasion, lonely figures in macabre settings (coffins, for example).
After several years of working with painting, Christian gave up it in favor of photography and sculpture. In 1968, his first solo exhibition, "La vie impossible de Christian Boltanski" (The Impossible Life of Christian Boltanski), was held at the Thétre le Ranelagh in Paris. The following year, in 1969, the artist published his first books "Recherche et présensation de tout ce qui reste de mon enfance, 1944–1950" and "Reconstitution d'un accident qui ne m'est pas encore arrivé et o j'ai trouvé la mort".
Later, Christian began using clay, sugar and gauze to create objects for his series "Attempt at Reconstitution of Objects that Belonged to Christian Boltanski between 1948 and 1954". In 1970, he started to create his "Vitrines de Référence" series. This project stretched into 1973. The same year, in 1973, the artist produced a short film "L'Appartement De La Rue De Vaugirard".
In 1977, Christian started working on his "Compositions", with huge painting-size photographs. In 1985, he started to create his "Monuments" series. The subjects here were photographs of nameless faces on walls in altar-like constructions or constellations, lit by small lamps. It's also worth mentioning, that in the 1970's, Boltanski took part in a number of shows, presenting his works at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1970); Documenta 5 in Kassel, Germany (1972); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (1973) and Venice Biennale Architettura (1975).
In 1988, Boltanski started using clothes in his work. They first appeared in a poignant piece, "Réserve, Canada". This work echoes the warehouses, that Nazis used to store the belongings of the deported. In 1990, Boltanski began his "Les Suisses morts" (The Dead Swiss) series, using photographs from a Swiss newspaper's obituaries. He chose the Swiss because, in his words, they "have no reason – or at least historical reason – to die". This work shows Boltanski's thoughts, turning to the brutality of death in general.
During his career, Christian also took part in many important exhibitions, including Documenta 8, Kassel (1987). His most recent solo shows include those, held at the Institut Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt, Germany (2006); La maison rouge, Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris (2008) and Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz (2009), among others.
Currently, Boltanski lives and works in the Malakoff neighborhood of Paris.
Christian Boltanski is a prominent visual artist, whose whole body of work has dealt with notions of death and the ephemeral as experienced through loss and memory. He gained prominence for his elaborate installations of found objects and his short avant-garde films, as well as publication of notebooks, in which he came to terms with his childhood.
Today, Boltanski is acknowledged as one of France’s foremost artists. One of his most prominent works is "La traversée de la vie" (2015), for which Boltanski used the same photographs as he had in 1971 for "Album des photos de la Famille D.". The images were enlarged and printed on fabric and illuminated by hangings lightbulbs, inviting a viewer to walk through them.
During his career, the artist received many awards, including the Kunstpreis Aachen, Kaiserring Prize, Praemium Imperiale (for sculpture), Nord/LB, Braunschweig Art Prize, among others.
Christian's work is currently held in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
(Published on the occasion of the artist's sixty-fifth bir...)
2007Altar to Chases High School
Vitrine of Reference
Reserve
Attempt at Recreation (Three Drawers)
C. Boltanski Archives
The Reserve of Dead Swiss
Départ - Arrivée (Departure - Arrival)
Dernières secondes (Last Seconds)
La traversée de la vie
Sombras
No Man's Land
Reserve of Dead Swiss (One's Not Dead)
Entre-temps (Meanwhile)
The artist culls photographs from vernacular sources, such as postcards, newspapers, police registries and family photo albums, creating vast groupings or installations of these mementos, that merge everyday life with high art.
The impact of World War II loomed throughout Christian's life. His works deal with the concepts of loss, memory, childhood and death, often functioning as memorials or shrines to collective cultural rituals and events. Many of his installations reference the lives, lost in the Holocaust.
Quotations:
"You can tell the truth more truthfully, than with the truth itself."
"My work is about the fact of dying, but it's not about the Holocaust itself."
"I believe, that mythology is stronger, than the art piece. I hope, that in a few years the piece will be destroyed, and everybody is going to forget my name. But people will say there was a crazy guy, who tried to speak with the whales."
"Art-making is not about telling the truth, but making the truth felt."
"The photo replaces the memory. When someone dies, after a while you can't visualize them anymore, you only remember them through their pictures."
"We all die twice - once, when we actually die, and once, when no one on earth recognizes our photograph."
"I've filled my whole life, trying to preserve the memory of living, in the fight against dying. Perhaps the only thing I've done, since stopping death is impossible, is to show this fight. The fight itself does not satisfy us either."
Christian is married to Annette Messager, a visual artist.
