Bernard Pagès, a key figure in Supports/Surfaces, has died
Sculptor Bernard Pagès died on Tuesday 13 October at the age of 86. A founding figure of Supports/Surfaces, he helped shift attention toward materials, structure and the way an artwork holds together.
His death marks the loss of an important voice in French contemporary art. Through Supports/Surfaces, the late-1960s movement he helped shape, Pagès took part in a shared inquiry into what an artwork is made of, and how its components become visible to the viewer.
For artists, painters and drawing enthusiasts alike, his work is interesting for the way it makes construction visible. The sculpture is not just a finished volume in space: it reveals balance, tension, support and a sense of gesture that speaks to composition, rhythm and surface.
It also sheds light on a key moment in the 1970s, when many artists questioned inherited forms and the role of material in art. Pagès invites the eye to follow an object’s internal logic rather than a subject or story, making his work useful for thinking about the relationship between matter, space and perception.
Source : Le Journal des Arts