PARIS.- The Bibliothèque nationale de France is presenting an exhibition of Geneviève Asse's notebooks, running from February 18 to May 25, 2025. This free exhibition is made possible by a donation of twenty-five notebooks from Asse's widow, Silvia Baron Supervielle, in 2022. The notebooks are displayed alongside a selection of Asse's prints and artist's books already in the BnF's collection. These notebooks offer insight into Asse's artistic process and are considered significant works in their own right.
Discover the luminous world of Geneviève Asse: Explore the artist's captivating use of color and light in her abstract masterpieces. Click here to find books showcasing Asse's work and delve into her unique artistic vision.
Asse, a painter and engraver born in Vannes in 1923 and who died in Paris in 2021, is known for her large monochrome canvases, particularly her use of a distinctive blue often called "Asse blue." Her work, which spans from early still lifes to later abstract canvases, explores the theme of light. She also collaborated on books with writers such as Pierre Lecuire, Yves Bonnefoy, and Silvia Baron Supervielle.
The donated notebooks, many of which are unpublished, hold a special place in Asse's oeuvre. Created independently from her painting from the late 1960s onward, they represent a personal aspect of her artistic production. Asse explored various notebook formats, including traditional bound books, leporellos, and Chinese calligraphy books. Each notebook served as a space for technical, rhythmic, and chromatic experimentation. Some are marked "oils on paper" and relate directly to her painting practice, showing connections with her larger canvases.
The notebooks, created between 1971 and 2009, provide a look into Asse's creative methods. The exhibition connects these notebooks with selected books and prints, highlighting recurring themes in her work. These shared themes include the representation of space, the vibration of light, and the interplay between revealing and concealing underlying structures. The exhibition also showcases the colors characteristic of her work, particularly her blues, alongside other colors like salmon pink, orange, and red. While Asse's painting moved toward abstraction in the 1950s, her work never fully abandoned references to nature, objects, and recognizable forms such as fans, leaves, and boats. These motifs may also reflect her connection to the Île-aux-Moines, where she had a studio from 1988, near her family's origins in the Gulf of Morbihan.
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