Biographies
CLARA HALTER
JEAN-MICHEL
WILMOTTE |
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Clara
Halter was born, lives and works in Paris.
From 1967 to 1977, she ran the review Eléments, the first
international publication for Peace in the Middle East. In 1976
she discovered her true vocation – drawing – just as
her husband Marek Halter, a painter at the time, published his first
novel. As if of one accord, they exchanged means of expression.
This is not to say that Clara Halter has given up working with
letters and signs. Though now, these tiny repetitive modules, worked
under a magnifying glass, contain nothing but script. Script as
a form, deliberately devoid of meaning. To accomplish such original,
minute work, she needs solitude, to withdraw from the world. But
not from time, for Clara Halter draws time. Not until 1992 did she
agree to exhibit her work for the first time. Since then, she has
often shown her work in France and abroad: the Georges Verney-Caron
Gallery in Lyon-Villeurbanne, 1994; the Nathalie Obadia Gallery
in Paris, 1996; several exhibits at the FNAC, a major home entertainment
store in Paris, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Monaco and Lyons
from 1997 to 1999; the Osiris gallery in Brussels, 1998; participation
in the collective “Scripts, Words, and Text” exhibit
conceived by Philippe Piguet at the Daniel and Florence Guerlain
Contemporary Art Foundation in Jouy-en-Josas; the “Contemporary
Script and Signs” at the J. F. Champollion Museum in Figeac,
2000; frescos for the French Pavilion at the International Fair
in Hanover, 2000; and finally “War or Peace” at the
Hiroshima City Contemporary Art Museum, 2005.
In 2000, Clara Halter took possession of a single word –
PEACE – that she illustrated ad infinitum in every language
and alphabet. This led to the creation, together with architect
Jean-Michel Wilmotte, of three peace monuments: first the Wall for
Peace in Paris on the Champ de Mars;
then the Peace Tower in Saint Petersburg for the town's tercentenary
celebration in 2003; and today, in 2005, the Gates of Peace to commemorate
the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Since 2000, the artist has conceived a number of multiples for
creators including Lancel, Lanvin, Christofle, Montblanc, Omas and
Pierre Frey.
Her work is exhibited at the Obadia gallery in Paris and figures
in several private collections and at the Fonds National d’Art
Contemporain (National Contemporary Art Fund).
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