During a research and creative residency at the Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain in 2023, Pierre Mabille is working on a report on the history of pastel in contemporary art.
A report in his own way: free, curious and well-documented, the book combines poetic interviews with a number of contemporary artists (from internationally renowned figures such as David Tremlett, Joan Mitchell and Ettore Spalletti to current generations like Célia Muller, Guillaume Pinard and Andréanne Godin), It takes us on a trip to the museum to discover the portraits drawn by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour, an illustrious precursor of the technique, and even meets the pastel manufacturers, all illustrated with numerous images and personal digressions.
Pastel is a hybrid book, at once instructive and evocative, cultured and funny, historical and contemporary, showing Pierre Mabille’s taste for the eclectic, the infinite variation of shapes and colours, the inexhaustible and stimulating lists that link things together and end up making the world.