For his exhibition at Perrotin gallery in New York, The Reconciliation of Opposites, Jean-Michel Othoniel uses painting and sculpture to explore contradictions that reside within himself and his work. Drawing inspiration from natural forms, Othoniel grapples with the juxtapositions between minimalism and sensuality, and contemplates various aspects of his own identity through an immersive creative process. We interviewed the artist for L&rsquo;Officiel St Barth, where the magnificent glass sculpture that he created, The Constellation of Pegasus, stands at the entrance to the Cheval Blanc hotel.

Jean-Michel Othoniel: It&rsquo;s been three years since I&rsquo;ve had an exhibition in New York. I&rsquo;m happy about this dual exhibition because, as I mention in the title, it&rsquo;s about reconciling opposites, such as between sculpture and painting. The second floor of the gallery primarily features sculptures, while on the top floor, there&rsquo;s a whole new series of paintings that I&rsquo;ve never shown in the United States, which are paintings in color. These paintings were initially inspired by natural patterns. I&rsquo;m a very contemplative person; I enjoy observing nature and drawing inspiration from it. That&rsquo;s one of the reasons I have always loved visiting St. Barth, as nature here is so beautiful, present, and uplifting. I looked at flowers and used their architecture as the basis for these paintings. Created in the last two years, they are very large canvases on white gold leaf with abstract images inspired by nature. Paradoxically, my work is very close to both the baroque and the sensual. But at the same time, I love minimalism, I admire conceptual art, and it&rsquo;s true that my artistic influences are people like Donald Judd and Ellsworth Kelly. In Ellsworth Kelly&rsquo;s work, there is precisely that focus on nature to derive abstract forms.
Jenny Mannerheim: In this work for Brooklyn Botanic Garden, you&rsquo;re using this idea of emotional geometry. How would you translate that into French?
JO: In French, I titled an exhibition at the Louvre Cour Puget in Paris &ldquo;G&eacute;om&eacute;trie Amoureuse.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s a geometry that is somewhat disrupted by emotion and embraces the idea of sensuality and beauty, which I consider very important today, to bring beauty, hope, and wonder back into the world. Given all the disasters that surround us, it&rsquo;s evident how essential it is today, I believe, to bring hope. It&rsquo;s somewhat my mission as an artist to reintroduce this notion of re-enchantment.
JM: To help people reconnect with their spirituality, to potentially feel something profound?
JO: Yes, and that&rsquo;s precisely what happened with my exhibition at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden this summer. I truly viewed that space as a dreamlike place: the garden is a space where one can escape the world, surrounded by the beauty of flowers and nature, and reconnect with oneself and the world, finding the energy to face the world again. It&rsquo;s not about retreating into a fairytale or virtual world. On the contrary, it&rsquo;s about re-establishing contact with reality through the beauty of the artworks.
JM: You mention Monet and Giverny, but there&rsquo;s also some influence from east Asia reflected in your work, like a Buddhist temple or Lotus flowers. I imagine your art speaks to people from all cultures and countries?
JO: Yes, I am lucky. I experienced this when I had my major exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which traveled across multiple continents and countries, including China, Korea, Japan, and New York, at the Brooklyn Museum. It allowed me to see how my work was open enough to connect with different spiritualities and perspectives across the world, and different perspectives. I really consider myself lucky to create artwork where the idea of contemplation and beauty speaks to people around the world. Thanks to this, I have a strong presence in Asia. The relationship with beauty that exists throughout Asia helped me accept and embrace the concept of beauty, which in my Judeo-Christian culture is often burdened with guilt. This idea that beauty is synonymous with lightness and a lack of radicality, while in many Asian cultures, beauty is a step towards spirituality. This has truly opened up my work and liberated me. When you look at the paintings exhibited at Perrotin, you are fully immersed in these backgrounds of white gold leaf that reflect light through the painting. It creates a genuine emotion where you are embraced by beauty. That&rsquo;s why I mentioned Monet. When we see &lsquo;Water Lilies&rsquo;, we find ourselves in this idea of something so vast that envelops us, welcomes us, and at the same time comforts us.

JM: Yes, and in your paintings, it seems that there is also a sense of movement through light and reflections (which is different from the sculptures; they are almost static).
JO: Yes, with light, but also with the changing of seasons and the reflections of trees in the pearls. Some of the artworks are even kinetic, like the one in St. Barth. It moves, it&rsquo;s an artwork in motion. But I believe there&rsquo;s something related to calligraphy in this relationship with movement, especially in painting. So, it&rsquo;s true that this calligraphic relationship might recall the influence of Asia on my work, and it&rsquo;s a way to involve the body in a different manner. Painting is something very personal. I enjoy doing it because it allows me to reconnect directly with the material. I&rsquo;m alone facing the canvas, and my mind can truly wander and reconstruct itself. When I create sculptures, they are often monumental, site-specific, or commissioned public or private sculptures. In those instances, I have control over a team, engineers, and craftsmen, which I love doing. However, I also love being alone with the material. Perhaps that&rsquo;s also what the title of the show, The Reconciliation of Opposites, signifies; it&rsquo;s about the two facets of myself, the collaborative side, and the side in direct dialogue with the material, both of which are equally important parts of myself.
JM:&nbsp; Let&rsquo;s talk a bit about your relationship with painting. When did you start?
JO: I&rsquo;ve always drawn. All my artworks, even the sculptures, start as watercolors. Every morning I make watercolours; it&rsquo;s like a diary. I draw every day, too. Some of these drawings will become sculptures, while others remain in the archives and never see the light of day. But at some point, about ten years ago, I felt the urge to confront the medium of painting, which I had experimented with before. In the 1990s, for instance, I created paintings using phosphorus, the material used for matchboxes, then exhibited in New York, at Nicole Klagsbrun&rsquo;s gallery. This connection to painting has always been there, albeit somewhat in the background. Ten years ago, I truly decided to confront this history of painting, which is a history in its own right. I started working on paintings that at the beginning were black, representing shadows of my sculptures. Little by little, over the past ten years, I&rsquo;ve continued. I had a major exhibition of six paintings at the Louvre, now part of the permanent collection displayed in the Puget &agrave; Paris courtyard. That was another moment that pushed me to assert my desire for painting. Now, here in New York, this is the first time I&rsquo;m really showcasing the paintings on their own, without my sculptures. To me it&rsquo;s my first major painting exhibition.
JM: Do you feel the need now, after all this success at Versailles, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Perrotin, and all over the world, to have more autonomy over your work?
JO: No, but there is a desire for intimacy, an almost loving connection with the work. I&rsquo;ve recently created a large space near Paris, in Montreuil, where I have a studio that serves as a platform for collaboration with other artists, creating a kind of cocoon in which I can present my work differently. I recently established a foundation with Johan Creten, which bears both our names, to bring to life this space which is more intimate. However, this doesn&rsquo;t prevent me from having several exciting projects on the horizon, including an exhibition in Brazil and another in Shanghai. Many projects have emerged from the Botanic Garden exhibition.
JM: Is the Foundation open to the public?
JO: We will receive visitors, but it will be by appointment, very intimate. I also believe that what&rsquo;s important is to create a new dialogue around the artworks, one that is autonomous, not tied to museums, galleries, nor the market. Rather, a direct dialogue between human beings. To have that human connection, which for me is very important today. At the foundation we are creating, there will also be artist residencies where artists can stay for a week or more to work with the archives and engage with our teams. It&rsquo;s really about establishing a space for reflection and creation with other artists.
JM: Tell us more about the foundation.
JO: The location is La Solfatara, named after an active volcano near Naples where you can find glass, sulphur, and earth. These are all elements that are part of our work with Johan. It&rsquo;s also a symbol of energy, a mysterious place where people used to go to listen to an oracle who provided images of the future. It was one of the major sites visited during a grand tour that Johan and I undertook near Naples. After discovering it some time ago, we wanted to create our own volcano near Paris.
JM: Speaking of Paris, your sculpture, Kiosk of the Nightwalkers, placed at the Palais-Royal metro station, is highly regarded. Is that the first artwork that made you famous?
JO: The art world is a very intimate world. There are very accomplished artists who may not necessarily be known to the general public. Creating an artwork in a public space, in Paris, in such a prestigious location, allowed me to connect with the city, the public who may not know me but will discover my work thanks to this exceptional location. It&rsquo;s my calling card. It&rsquo;s truly the thing that has made people aware of me.

JM: Do you think it&rsquo;s important, as an artist, to create public artworks?
JO: Yes, it&rsquo;s important for artists to take their work to the streets. If we want the artwork to have the power of reconciliation, of humanity, of wonder, we need to make the effort to bring it to the public. Creating works in public spaces demands a lot of energy and effort, and I don&rsquo;t do it frequently because it&rsquo;s time-consuming, but I enjoy: to inspire people, to bring a bit of dreams, emotion, and humanity. That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s important.
JM: And this precious artwork has never been vandalized?
JO: No, I&rsquo;ve been very fortunate. But I believe that when I created it, I made a bet on beauty. I thought that if we provide beautiful materials, if we show people that we respect them and trust them, and if we offer them the opportunity to make this artwork come alive in the city, they will respect it. And that&rsquo;s what happened.
JM: That&rsquo;s what I found exceptional after 23 years. People ultimately respect beauty.
JO: Yes, it was a gamble, and I think we&rsquo;ve won it now because the artwork has become a part of the city&rsquo;s heritage. Today, I meet people who were born in the year 2000 and are 23 years old, and they don&rsquo;t believe the artist is still alive. They think it&rsquo;s an artist from the last century, which is true. Someone asked me, &ldquo;Are you the artist&rsquo;s son?&rdquo; I said, &ldquo;No, I am the artist!&rdquo;
JM: I wanted to come back to St. Barth. How did you design this kinetic piece at the entrance of the Cheval Blanc Hotel?
JO: It&rsquo;s a constellation. In this sculpture all the pink pearls create The Constellation of Pegasus, which is the winged White Horse. What struck me when I first went to St Barth was the night sky on the beach. It&rsquo;s so exceptional, so beautiful, so natural, and unpolluted by light. It&rsquo;s magical. I wanted that constellation to be depicted, and that&rsquo;s why it moves, to mirror how constellations move with the seasons in the sky. So, it was a kind of poetic dialogue with the idea of the horse, which is very prominent in this hotel. But when you see it, it&rsquo;s also like a giant exotic flower, which has its own energy. There&rsquo;s the idea of the infinite knot, of this world that always renews itself. It&rsquo;s an artwork that I really love, and I&rsquo;d love to come and see it more often.
JM: Did you have the time to visit St Barth?
JO: Yes, I explored the entire island, from the various coasts to the different bays. I haven&rsquo;t experienced St Barth during the very festive moments; I visited it during the off-season, and it was truly so beautiful, so poetic, and the nature is exceptional. It&rsquo;s a small island, but everything is very different. That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s beautiful. I would love to have an exhibition in St Barth.
JM: Yes, it would be incredible to organize an exhibition in St Barth. On a related note, since you paint and create sculptures related to nature, and today, there&rsquo;s a lot of talk about the environment and how to take action. How do you feel about these discussions and actions, are you invested in them?
JO: The biggest work I&rsquo;ve created is a sculpture called The Big Wave that I made five years ago. I made it after the tsunami, while I was in Japan at the time I realised that we needed to freeze this catastrophe to commemorate it, so I created this wave that looked like it had been stopped, to create a sort of &ldquo;stop, no more&rdquo; statement. So, I made this large wave as if it were frozen. I made it with bricks, with the idea that bricks also represent rebuilding, starting over. You find bricks in every country on earth, which makes it really a universal language. Perhaps the power of artists is to capture a moment and try to say, &ldquo;That&rsquo;s enough. It&rsquo;s time to stop. Stop this image of catastrophe and let&rsquo;s rebuild.&rdquo; It&rsquo;s currently in my studio in Montreuil.
JM: That must have been an impactful moment.
JO: It was impactful because all my artworks were made of glass. We made the decision to say, we&rsquo;ll set up the exhibition to show the earth&rsquo;s fragility. Throughout the entire duration of the exhibition, there was never an earthquake. It was almost a mystical gamble on my part. Holding this exhibition was like praying for Japan. At the end, the Imperial Princess thanked me because many people were leaving Japan or wanted to leave. I said, on the contrary, we have to stay, the artworks have to stay. We have to make an offering to nature. It was one of the most beautiful and moving moments of my career.
JM: In St. Barth, we live with nature. Last week, there was a hurricane alert. The residents are used to rebuilding all the time.
JO: Yes, it&rsquo;s important to evoke this idea of rebuilding the world. And this is very present at Perrotin gallery. There&rsquo;s a whole series there, Precious Stonewalls &ndash; they are like small hotels hanging on the wall in the exhibition. They are like altars. But they&rsquo;re not places of prayer. They&rsquo;re places of hope.

Jean-Michel Othoniel’s 'Reconciliation of Opposites'

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