Skip to content
Group ShowMarch 13 - May 16, 2021

NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s

NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s, curated by Richard Frerejean Taittinger in collaboration with Yoyo Maeght, is the new historical exhibition at RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY. In order to celebrate RTG’s 6th anniversary, we are honored to organize the very first comprehensive US exhibition on the Paris-based movement Narrative Figuration.

On view at 154 Ludlow St until May 16th, 2021, NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s features the work of nine prominent artists from the École de Paris in the 1960s – 1970s:

Valerio Adami (Italian b. 1935)
Eduardo Arroyo (Spanish 1937-2018)
Erró (Icelandic b. 1932)
Gérard Fromanger (French b. 1939)
Jacques Monory (French 1924-2018)
Bernard Rancillac (French b. 1931)
Peter Saul (American b. 1934)

Hervé Télémaque (Haitian b. 1937)
Cybèle Varela (Brazilian b. 1943)

In June of 1964, the center of the art world changed from Paris to New York when young American artist Robert Rauschenberg won the Grand Prix of International Painting at the 32nd Venice Biennale, solidifying American soft power through the elevated positioning of American Pop art. A reply came from Paris in July 1964, when French art critic Gérald Gassiot-Talabot together with young artists Hervé Télémaque and Bernard Rancillac organized the groundbreaking exhibition at Musee d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris entitled Mythologies Quotidiennes. This group exhibition of 34 artists (including Adami, Arroyo, Monory, Rancillac, Saul, and Télémaque) served as the de facto manifesto of the Narrative Figuration movement, which ended in the late 1970s when the artists decided to continue their solo careers.

In today’s context, these artists are gaining the momentum and acclaim they deserve from international museums. Following Peter Saul’s retrospective at the New Museum in New York in 2020, several of them are preparing for their upcoming retrospectives:

Hervé Télémaque at the Serpentine in London in Fall 2021,
Erró at the Reykjavík Art Museum in Iceland in January 2022,
Cybèle Varela at the Museum of Contemporary Art in São Paolo in 2022.

Furthermore, this exhibition seeks to pay tribute to Cybèle Varela as the last living woman involved in Narrative Figuration, who has recently signed representation with the RICHARD TAITTINGER GALLERY.

NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s is on view at 154 Ludlow Street through May 16th.

For Inquiries

Feel free to inquire about this exhibition below:

Featured Artist(s)

Hervé Télémaque

Peter Saul

Bernard Rancillac

Gérard Fromanger

Erró

Eduardo Arroyo

Valerio Adami

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Cybèle Varela

Works and lives in Madrid, Spain ​​Born in Brazil in 1943, Cybèle Varela began painting at a young age, completed her formal art studies at the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art, and received the Young Contemporary Art Award...

View Artist Page →

Installation Views

  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
  • NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s
    NARRATIVE FIGURATION 60s – 70s