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Born in 1951 in Thann (Alsace, France) Paul Maurer starts photographing as an autodidact. He lives and works in Paris, France, since 1974. His main series cover natural and urban landscapes, architecture, plants or still lives. Paul Maurer finds his primary inspiration in the Alsatian landscapes and natural spaces, where he makes his first prize-winning shot. His encounter with French architect Paul Andreu determined his move from natural to urban landscapes: he pictures the streets and all that is happening in the town. His eye first captures general views, then concentrates on buildings.
He doesn’t forget nature though and goes on a parallel path, from general to detail, in his flower pictures. He captures the beauty and poetry found in the petals or the stems in the waters of the Zen gardens or of the Versailles Park. In his series « Etudes » (referring to Chopin’s world) Paul Maurer lets the outside urban world reflect in the glass and water in the vase.
The recurring elements of the billboards in the oriental urban world inspires Paul Maurer in his work with « Multiples »:« Portrait of a Fig tree » is the first in this series, where he pictures all the drying leaves of a tree, accumulating the pictures one after the other in the same frame to show the tree’s own personality.
Windows, walls, adds on walls, all architectural elements are also part of his inspiration. He feels the urge to picture one same object on different points of view to focus our attention on its origin.

 

CONTACTS:

  • LEWIS GALLERY  (Miami - USA) Tel: (1) 305 372 12 20    email
  • FRENCH SPIRIT  (Hong Kong - China) Tel: (852) 92 66 00 86    email
  • Paul MAURER  (Paris - France)    email

 

PERSONNAL EXHIBITIONS

  • 1979   FNAC / Paris - France : “Basel’s Carnival”
  • 1980   Photo Art / Basel - Switezerland : “Basel’sCarnival”
  • 1981   C. Germain / Paris - France : “Portrait of a Garden”
  • 1983   Théatre du Rond-Point / Paris - France : “Hommage à James Joyce”
  • 1984   Mois de la Photo / Paris - France : “Trianon”
  • 1985   Photo Art / Basel - Switzerland : “Masks”Stockereg Gallery / Zurich - Switzerland : “Beaches”
  • 1987   Asherman Gallery / Cleveland (Ohio) - USA : “Trianon”Museum of Modern Art / Miami (Flo.) - USA : “On Atget’s Footsteps”
  • 1989   Cartier’s Foundation for Contemporary Arts / Paris -France: “Lights,Hazard and Reflection”
  • 1990   S.A.R.I. Exhibition Center / Paris - France : “ Concert in Town”
  • 1991   Museum / Romans - France : “Erik’s Garden”
  • 1995   United Technologies’ Showroom / Paris - France : “New York”
  • 1996   Museum for Photography / Théssaloniki - Grece : “Points of view”
  • 1998   Galerie Lahune Brenner / Paris “ Tour d’Horizon”
  • 1999   Galerie Lahune-Brenner / Paris - France: " Jardin d’Erik "
  • 2003   Paris-Expo / Paris “The Lace-makers in Calais”Century Conference Center / Hong Kong - China: “East meets West”
  • 2004   Century Business lounge : Hong Kong - China: “Hong Kong”
  • 2006/2007   Jao Tsung-I 's Petite Ecole/ Hong Kong - China

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

  • 1979   International Art Fair / Basel - Switzerland : “Natures”
  • 1980   J. Briance Gallery / Paris - France : “Masks”
  • 1981   Charmy l’Envers Gallery / Paris - France : “Trianon”
  • 1982   FIAC / Paris - France : “Hennesy’s dreams”
  • 1983   G. Pompidou Museum / Paris - France : “Imaginary Images” R.I.P. / Arles - France : “Natures” Paris Photo Gallery / Paris - France : “Natures”
  • 1985   Museum of historical Monuments / Paris - France : “ Workshops”
  • 1989   V. Esders Gallery / Paris - France : “Buildings”
  • 1990   Lambinet Museum / Versailles - France : “ On Atget’s Footsteps” CNIT / Paris- France : “J.M. Jarre’s Concert in Town”
  • 1992   Empress Place Museum / Singapour: “Architecture by P. Andreu” Chicago Athenaeum / Chicago - USA : Architecture by P. Andreu”
  • 1994   Centro de Arte y Communicacion / Buenos Aires - Brasil : “Sea Sphere” Mois de la Photo / Paris - France : “Natures”
  • 1996   Pavillon de l’Arsenal / Paris - France : “ Seine’Embankments” Museum of Photography / Charleroi - Belgium : “The 3 great Egyptians” Hotel de Sully / Paris - France : “ The 3 great Egyptians”
  • 1998   Galerie Zabriskie / Paris “Au revoir Paris” Paris Photo / Paris “Crossed Photos”
  • 1999   Galerie Zabriskie / New York "Au revoir Paris"
  • 2000   Japanese Teneri Cultural Centre of Paris / "Petites Traversées"
  • 2001   Lewis Gallery / Miami, USA / Thresholds “Architectures”
  • 2002   Zabriskie Gallery/New York/ FIAC “Portrait of a Figtree”
  • 2003   Galerie Christine Phall/Paris - France “Parfums de Fleurs” Galerie Lahune-Brenner - Paris - France “New York 9/11/2002” Exhibition Center - Hong Kong - China “Capiatls”
  • 2004   Galerie Esther Woerdehoff / FIAC - Paris - France Galerie Esther Woerdehof / Köln Photo Show - Germany Galerie Esther Woerdehof / Paris Photo - France
  • 2005-2007   Galerie Esther Woerdehof / Palm Beach Photo Show – USA
  • 2006   Petite Ecole “ Light Opens Space ” Hong Kong - China
  • 2006   Central Library “ Wisdom Path ” Hong Kong - China
  • 2009   "La Dentelle... La Mer, la mer... La Dentelle" - Cité Internationale de la Dentelle et de la Mode - Calais - France

 

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

  • Bibliothèque Nationale / Paris / France
  • Fond National de la Photo / Paris / France
  • Affaires Culturelles de la Ville de Paris / Paris / France
  • Fond National d’Art Contemporain / Paris / France
  • Musée Carnavalet / Paris / France
  • Maison Européenne de la Photo / Paris / France
  • Caisse des Dépots et Consignations / Paris / France
  • Musée Georges Pompidou / Paris / France

 

The vision of the Thessaloniki Wall:  Text by Serge Renaudie ­ Architect and Urbanist.

« Watch this town ! Look at Thessaloniki, modern and modernist, where the polished signs of past burst with wars, conquests and fires: this town woven by the collision of civilisations, theatre where the hellenist, roman, byzantyne, venitian, turkish, hebrew and greek cultures have left their marks; this town-culture stowed to the sea by the White Tower, from where the wall starts out. It runs and bursts, sneaks in and out through the reconstructed town, climbs up the developed hills; the wall that reveals the memory and ascents the alleys and squares; the simple and modest memory of the right distance to keep between heaven and earth; the memory that is the future of a living town.

Follow the thread of the wall, walk along the intricated paths where the houses have cropped up, the rosted stairs, the collars of gardens and vaults; climb up the covered alleys, breathe the sweatiness of old twisted figtree listening to the rumor of the neibourhood; watch the noises hanging from the surrounding clifts of buildings that listen to the stories that the wall keeps telling, because this wall is their past and present and it knows.

His lense nostalgically misted, the photographer unveils the present, he paces with his eyes the existing, the alive, through the deapth of the memory that he catches soothened, on the edge of his point of view.

Following the wall, he wanders along the town’s backbone, its vitality, its continuity; relieved of the triviality, he releases the daily vibration and restores its contemporaneousness through the chair hanging from the balcony, in beween the antennas and the woven wires, the pipes and barrels of the water tanks, the fences, the shutters, the curtains of the café terraces, to the table that awaits, the landscapes and wite tiles, through the dark window to the blinding whiteness, between the pleats of a car cover, amongst the motobikes that buzz in the humble architectures, filled with the accumulated experiences. The Photographer catches the time that runs through the town that crackles.

Making his point of view slide in the continuity where he knows he’s caught and centered, the wall guides and drives him; something happens and is transmitted, without traps or capture, in the exchange of deapth of field.

When walking and following the track of the wall, the Photographer looks for the town’s eye that he obsessively catches from place to place, step by step.

The wall is the town’s eye.

Paul Maurer, the photographer, captures the towns and the architectures. His images give the strange feeling of a town that, through a game of scopic dialogues, offers itself . »

 

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

  • Galerie Zabriskie / Paris / France
  • Virginia zabriskie / new york / U.S.A.
  • Photo Art Basel / Bâle / Switzerland
  • Rockefeller Center / New York / U.S.A.
  • Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain / Paris / France
  • Galerie Germain / Paris / France
  • Asherman Gallery / Cleveland - Ohio / Switzerland
  • E. Ouie / Bâle / Switzerland
  • R. Meyerson-Gilbert / Monterey - Californie / U.S.A.
  • P. Goyannes / Paris / France
  • L. Schlackman / Washington / U.S.A.
  • M. Thomas / Paris / France
  • Caisses d’Epargne / Paris / France
  • Jonathan & Abbie Klein / Cleveland - Ohio / U.S.A.
  • F. Montjannel / Paris / France
  • L. Neve de Mevergnies / Brussells / Belgium
  • J-L et A-M Pons / Geneva / Switzerland
  • M. Liu Chin / Hong Kong / China
  • Elden CHEUNG / Hong Kong / China

 

MAIN SERIES

  • 1976/82   Zabriskie's people
  • 1978   Versailles
  • 1979   Bagatelle
  • 1980   Giverny
  • 1982   Trianon
  • 1983   Pavillon de Marsan
  • 1986   Pyramids / Egypt
  • 1987   Empty Street Spaces of Paris / France
  • 1989   Lights, Hazard and Reflections by Ingo Maurer / France
  • 1990   Secret Gardens of Paris / France
  • 1992   Les Houches / France
  •           Venice / California, US
  •           Point Lobos / California, US
  •           Yosemite / California, US
  •           Back from Burano / Italy
  •           Erik’s Garden / France
  • 1993   Venitian Façades / Italy
  •           Saint Petersburg / Russia
  •           London / England
  •           Buenos Aires / Brazil
  •           Sao Paolo / Brazil
  •           Copacabana / Brazil
  • 1994   The Grand Arch / France
  • 1995   New York / US
  •           Death Valley / California, US
  •           Exchange Module / France
  •           Embankments of River Seine / France
  • 1996   Points of View / France
  •           Peperonies / France
  • 1997   The Alps / France
  • 1998   Jardin d'Erik
  •           Chantiers / France
  •           Crossed Photos / France
  • 1999   Kyoto's Gardens / Japan
  •           Cosney Island / US
  •           New Yorks'Reflections / US
  •           Shanghai's Rainy Days / China
  • 2000   New York Vues / USA
  • 2001   Lace
  •           Flowers
  • 2002   Rocks in Britanny
  •           The Flats of Cleveland
  • 2003   Daniel’s Garden
  •           Flowers
  •           North Sea Beaches
  •           In the Streets of Hong Kong
  • 2004   Floral Abstractions
  •           Multiple
  • 2005   Shangai
  • 2006   Hong Kong
  •           Summer Palace
  • 2008   Architecture in progress
  •           Travalling through the Black Forest
  • 2009   See and Lace

 

10 rue Jean Bouton 75012 Paris France   tel: (33) 01 43 42 32 72   email
All photographs Copyright© Paul Maurer 2005-2007 - All rights reserved