History of the collection
The Albers-Honegger Donation brings together the works given to the French State by Gottfried Honegger and Sybil Albers, together with the donations of Aurelie Nemours, Gilbert Brownstone and EMMANUEL and gifts from several other artists. The collection is listed in the inventory of the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) and on long-term loan to the Espace de l'Art Concret. It is also the result of a personal story — that of Gottfried Honegger, a Swiss artist who set out to master the language of geometry in the early 1950s, and of his partner Sybil Albers. Zurich, Paris and New York were the first stops on this long journey.
The Albers-Honegger Donation online
The website of the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) offers a database of the entire Albers-Honegger Donation. It covers the works on loan to the Espace de l'Art Concret, with detailed records, images and technical information.
What is concrete art?
The eac. takes its name from the historical concrete art movement. The term emerged between the two world wars: concrete art claims the objectivity and autonomy of its visual language, free from any reference to the reality of the outside world.
“Concrete and not abstract painting, because nothing is more concrete, more real than a line, a colour, a surface.” — Theo Van Doesburg
The Art Concret group was founded in 1930 around Theo Van Doesburg, bringing together Jean Hélion, Otto Carlsund, Léon Tutundjian and Marcel Wantz. The term “concrete art” was adopted by Wassily Kandinsky in 1938 and by Jean Arp in 1944 to describe their art. It was the Swiss artist Max Bill who gave the movement real momentum from 1936 onwards. The principles of concrete art can be applied to typography, architecture and design — the aim is to “create a measurable art, valid for all, in order to create a universal language, like that of science or music”. (Serge Lemoine)
1 - Art is universal.
2 - The work of art must be entirely conceived and shaped by the mind before its execution. It must receive nothing from nature's formal properties, nor from sensuality or sentimentality.
3 - The painting must be constructed entirely from purely plastic elements, that is, planes and colours. A pictorial element has no meaning beyond “itself”; consequently, the painting has no meaning beyond “itself”.
4 - The construction of the painting, as well as its elements, must be simple and visually controllable.
5 - Technique must be mechanical, that is, exact and anti-impressionist.
6 - A striving for absolute clarity.
