The French conceptual artist Bernar Venet (b.1941, Château-Arnoux-Saint-Auban, France) rose to prominence in the late Sixties through the avant-garde art scene in New York. He moved to the city in 1966 and quickly became instrumental in developing a radical new proposition involving the use of mathematics and scientific language alongside artists such as On Kawara, Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth, Art & Language and Robert Barry.
He first began producing monumental linear improvisations in steel in the early 1980s of which his “Arcs,” “Straight Lines” and “Indeterminate Lines” have become his most iconic series. Venet’s sculptures study variations of lines – specifically of arcs and curves. However, it is the scope of the work in its mass, concept and execution that makes Venet one of the most prominent living sculptors today. Each series expresses different notions of Venet’s interest in the mathematics of order versus chaos. Using a technique that has been described as “Action Sculpture in slow motion” Venet carefully balances his vision for the material with the steel's natural responses to the warping effects of pressure and heat
His sculptures have been exhibited in major cities in the United States, Asia, Europe and South America, including Paris, Luxembourg, Geneva, Basel, Cologne, Brussels, New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Denver. As one of the world’s most important and talked about artists today, Venet’s sculptures have been acquired by museums such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The National Gallery of Art, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Switzerland, National Museum of Jakarta, Sonje Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The Milwaukee Art Museum and The Detroit Institute of Arts.