Joseph Havel

Fantômes

Hôtel Tingry at the Dora Maar Cultural Center, Ménerbes, France

June 14 – November 8, 2024

Known for his exploration of daily life, the American artist Joseph Havel seizes and transforms banal objects to reflect upon the construction of identity. For this exhibition titled Fantômes at the Hotel Tingry, Havel explores how one remembers, categorizes, records, and at times neglects or rejects, histories and cultures.

“The works on display take up a motif dear to Havel, namely the book, which is an integral part of his daily life. It appears as a tool of knowledge, as a singular object that occupies a place in space, but also as a symbol of a field of knowledge and experience, and as a possible sign of social distinction. To compose his sculptures, he arranges books in stacks, or even pillars, always skillfully composed and often with a delicate, precarious balance. In the context of the Hôtel de Tingry, the architectural character of these works echoes the surrounding architecture, while evoking the art of the still life, in a vein halfway between illusionism and abstraction.

The drawings on show are part of a series of works on paper begun by Havel in the spring of 2022 and initially conceived around the idea of book burning. These stylistically free and vigorous drawings, combine graphite, grease pencil, acrylic paint, smoked bell pepper and, to evoke fire, cayenne and saffron.”

– Edouard Kopp, Exhibition Catalogue

Joseph Havel’s sculptural practice is rooted in an exploration of the quotidian. Domestic objects such as shirts, books, bedsheets, and curtains are cast in bronze and polyurethane resin, taking on neoclassical forms that suggest the human body and social histories of use without dictating any particular reading to the viewer. Rather, the works evoke open-ended visual poetry: their significance comes from their form, materiality, and presence. His series of shirt-label paintings interrogates the boundary between objecthood and the illusionist space of the picture plane, approaching minimalism and geometric abstraction with a post-modernist’s critical stance. Unifying Havel’s various bodies of work is his distinctive post-minimal aesthetic, marked by a sense of quiet gravity and open-ended investigation of critical questions.

Joseph Havel (b. 1954, Minneapolis) earned his BFA from the University of Minnesota in 1975, and his M.F.A. from Pennsylvania State University in 1979. Havel is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2013 Texas Visual Artist as recognized by The Texas Commission for the Arts and Texas State Legislature; the 2010 Texas Artist of the Year as recognized by Art League Houston; the 2008 Dallas Contemporary Legends Award; the 2004 Artadia Fellowship; the 1999 Cultural Arts Council of Houston Artist’s Award; the 1998 American Institute of Architects, Houston, Artist’s Award; the 1995 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award; and the 1987 National Endowment for the Arts Artist’s Fellowship. Havel’s sculptures and drawings are included in the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis; The Menil Collection, Houston; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Honolulu; the Dallas Museum of Art; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Musée Arte, Roubaix, France; S.M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.  The artist lives and works in Houston, Texas.