"L’arte non è descrizione, l’arte non ha nulla da dire, non ha niente da esprimere. L’arte è trasposizione dell’essere, dello spirito e, per tale ragione, non può spiegarsi attraverso segni grafici, parole, forme."
Bernard Aubertin’s (1934–2015) artistic research is rooted in monochrome painting, understood as a form of pictorial silence: art does not describe, narrate, or seek to express anything through signs, words, or forms. Rather, it is a transposition of being and spirit, a pure experience of colour and matter.
From the 1960s onwards, red became the central focus of his work, conceived as an absolute colour and as an expression of energy, light, and fire. His practice gradually expanded into experimentation with matches, nails, and combustion, in works where fire becomes both a creative and transformative element.
In 1961, Aubertin joined the ZERO group in Düsseldorf, developing a radical investigation into the relationship between colour, space, matter, and light, distinguished by his use of fire as an artistic gesture. His works have been exhibited at major international institutions, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, and are held in numerous European and international museum collections.