Watch now: In the studio with Bernard Piffaretti

9 August 2020

French abstract painter Bernard Piffaretti invites us into his studio and discusses his work. Directed by Justin Westover, the film features commentary from art critic and poet, Raphael Rubinstein and was produced ahead of Piffaretti's second exhibition with Lisson Gallery — Bernard Piffaretti: Coda — which is featured on the gallery's Online Exhibition platform from 10–30 August.

Frequently used in music, a ‘coda’ is a unique passage at the end of a score, concluding a piece of music often by creatively repeating a passage heard before but expanding on the theme to create a familiar, yet new, finale. For this exhibition, Piffaretti takes a step back in time to an earlier moment in his career, presenting a selection of important paintings made between 1989 and 1999, some of which are on virtual loan from the Centre Pompidou, Frac Bourgogne, and Fondation Cartier. As an addendum to this survey, the exhibition also features a series of new works, recently completed by the artist in his Paris studio. While the new works revisit previous themes and feature the characteristic ‘Piffaretti system’, they are layered and intensified. This chronological shift functions in much the same way as a coda in a piece of music or literary work, in that it is both a summary of what went before and also a conclusion.