Exhibition - new photographic acquisitions 4

Exhibitions of works acquired by Françoise SAUR as part of the photographic year, presented in the Graphic Arts room.

Françoise Saur
Portfolio Le Re-Cueillir, 2002

Françoise Saur began her training in photography at the École Louis-Lumière (Paris), then continued at the Folkwangschule für Gestaltung (Essen, Germany) with Otto Steinert, founder and theorist of subjektive Fotografie. Guided by role models such as Dorothea Lange and Henri Cartier Bresson, she gradually oriented her lens towards sociological themes. Each time, she takes the time to immerse herself in the context, in order to capture the soul of the people and places involved. Her subjects range from the human figure to nature and its development through the seasons.

Her talent as a photographer was recognized early on, and several awards have marked her career. In 1978, she received a grant from the Fondation Nationale de la Photographie, and in 1979 the Prix Nièpce. In 2000, thanks to a grant from the French Ministry of Culture's Fonds d'incitation à la création (FIACRE-CNAP), she was able to undertake her ambitious three-year "Femmes de Gourara" series in Algeria. Her career has also been marked by several solo exhibitions, at La Chambre in Strasbourg (2016), the Musée d'art moderne et contemporain in Strasbourg (2021) and the Musée des beaux-arts in Mulhouse (2022), and by participation in various group shows organized at the Rencontre d'Arles (1983), the Musée d'art contemporain in Dunkirk (1990) and the Musée du Montparnasse in Paris (2010).

His works are held in several public collections (Fonds national d'art contemporain, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Cité Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, Musée d'Art Moderne, Strasbourg, Musée Nièpce, Châlon-sur-Saône...).

Le Re-cueillir is a series produced between 2001 and 2002 on the outskirts of her studio, in which Françoise Saur captures 34 snapshots of plant species: grasses, mosses, snow sedges, willowherbs, black thorns, foxgloves, horsetails, bilberries, ferns, lily of the valley and maple leaves. The 36x36 cm frame invites a close dialogue with the motif. The black and white tones accentuate the relief of these mountain territories. Placed end-to-end, these photographs reveal the artist's journey into the heart of nature, and the deep ties she maintains with it. Each shot reflects an encounter with a place and the artist's unique understanding of it. In her approach, Françoise Saur also takes into account the spatial layout of her works, for which she proposes a batch arrangement, although each image can also exist independently.

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