Bertrand DORNY (1931-2015) - Lot 111

Bertrand DORNY (1931-2015) Forme carrée Color etching on Arches vellum, signed lower right and numbered 45/50 lower left. H_ 29.5 cm, W_ 26 cm Framed under glass. A French artist born and died in Paris, Bertrand Dorny is a major figure in contemporary engraving and the art of the artist's book. Initially trained as a painter, he turned definitively to etching in the 1960s after an apprenticeship with Johnny Friedlaender, turning etching and aquatint into innovative, richly textured means of expression. His engraved work, some 650 plates produced between 1962 and 1991, explores color, form and relief, renewing the possibilities of printmaking. At the same time, Dorny developed a significant output of collages, "topomorphoses" and artists' books in collaboration with contemporary poets and writers, bringing text and image into dialogue in a sensitive interplay of signs and rhythms. His hybrid creations, often built from simple materials (folded paper, cardboard, wood), bear witness to a constant quest for material and formal invention. A committed pedagogue, he teaches drawing and engraving in Paris (Académie de la Grande Chaumière, École des Beaux-Arts), helping to pass on his technical knowledge and poetic approach to the image. His work is represented in public collections in France and abroad, and illustrates developments in graphic design and the art book at the end of the XXᵉ century.