OLIVIER MOSSET b. 1944

Olivier Mosset is one of the central figures of post-war abstract painting, and a key reference point for several generations of European and American painters. Initially associated with Daniel Buren, Michel Parmentier and Niele Toroni as part of the short-lived B.M.P.T. constellation, the series of circles he painted tirelessly during the 1960s are among the most frequently commented on works from that period.

In the pre-May '68 Parisian climate, the four painters were organising 'demonstrations' rather than exhibitions. 

As the critic Bob Nickas wrote: "Olivier Mosset has always been seriously committed to abstraction and its history, with a way of seeing painting in terms of production and reception, and with an awareness of its social and political dimension ».

Mosset has lived in the United States since 1977, and took part in the vibrant New York art scene of the 1980s. With the same analytical rigour that characterised his early work, his painting explored the fields of monochrome and geometric abstraction. In retrospect, Mosset appears to be one of the few European painters to have followed in the footsteps of the great American painters (Frank Stella, Robert Ryman and Barnet Newman). However, this did not prevent him from remaining attentive to developments in the scenes through which he passed, and from supporting artists' practices that differed from his own.

Following the project he set up in 2018 at the MAMO in Marseille, for which he developed a "chameleon" style of painting, Olivier Mosset produced two works on aluminium for the Galerie Pauline Pavec during the summer of 2022, iridescent monochromes designed to create an unprecedented dilaogue with the « glitters » of Robert Malaval.