Title: When art and science meet: a scientist’s admiration for artists Soulages, Opalka, Verdier, Serra and César
Proposal for an Art & Science Lecture by Joël Chevrier
We all share and explore the same list of universal questions at the heart of our existence as human beings. Artists and scientists are no exception. At the end of the day, it does not matter who you are, what is your business, we all share this very same list as it is grounded in how we live together on this planet. We can explore how art and science can have an inspiring and original dialogue with you about key universal questions at work in your business, in your activity, in your life.
Contemporary art often leaves speechless. Me too. Fortunately, art historian Georges Didi-Huberman has come to our rescue. He says that in front of a work of art, “visual emotion compels us to speak in a new way.”
Further help came from gallerist Jennifer Flay: “For an artist to be relevant, their work must be singular and address universal questions.” This is a quote from gallerist Pierre Nahon in his Dictionnaire amoureux de l’art moderne et contemporain.
The list of universal questions is long, and I have shared my reflections in a book entitled A physicist at museum, focusing notably on these five artists:
– Pierre Soulages spent 40 years sculpting light in space with his Outrenoirs and the stained-glass windows of the Conques abbey.
– Roman Opalka, by painting numbers, devoted the time of his life to directly confronting the passage of time.
– Fabienne Verdier extracts movement and energy from the world with her abstract paintings, translating them onto vast canvases. Her work and tools are deeply rooted in her mastery of Chinese calligraphy.
– Sculptors Richard Serra and César Baldaccini both created monumental metal cubes. For a physicist, they evoke the essence of matter: volume and weight. According to Richard Serra: “Gravity has always been a problem in sculpture. The way this problem is solved is integral to any definition of sculpture.”
Light, time, movement, and matter are universal questions explored by physicists !
To speak about works of art in a new way, for me, means to discuss them through the lens of science — not to explain, which would be disastrous — but to journey toward the works, discover them, and ultimately share this experience by expressing it.
This approach led me to long discussions with Pierre Soulages and Fabienne Verdier. It was New York gallerist Dominique Lévy who introduced me to the work of Roman Opalka.
This lecture offers to share an experience of the works of Pierre Soulages, Roman Opalka, Fabienne Verdier, Richard Serra and César Baldaccini. It also highlights a profound admiration for the brilliance and precision of their creative gestures, rooted in the great questions that a scientific perspective can help emphasize. Scientists know that work on such questions is always challenging and demanding, regardless of the goals pursued or the differences in methods and tools. A mutual respect arises from the recognition that artists must also face these challenges tirelessly, with the same extreme rigor.
- Duration is 45 minutes. Questions and answers afterwards. The language can be English or French. Please if interested, send me a message at joelchevrier at gmail.com
Joël Chevrier is a professor of physics at the Université Grenoble Alpes.
He served as scientific curator for a Soulages exhibition at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) at the invitation of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art and the EPFL. He has also worked with sculptor Giuseppe Penone on his artwork Essere vento, presented in 2024–2025 in the Arte Povera exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris. Additionally, he collaborated with choreographer Yoann Bourgeois on his performance La Mécanique de l’Histoire at the Panthéon in Paris.
Teaching, exploring, learning with students... 