Bernard Aubertin
Monocromo Rosso, 1961
This painted wooden relief was created in 1961, one of the most significant years in Bernard Aubertin's career. It marks the moment in which the artist's mature visual language crystallised and coincides with his invitation to join the international ZERO movement, alongside Otto Piene, Heinz Mack and Günther Uecker. Works from this formative period are among the earliest expressions of the ideas that would define Aubertin's entire oeuvre.
Following his encounter with Yves Klein in 1957, Aubertin rejected traditional painting in favour of an uncompromising exploration of the monochrome. By reducing painting to a single colour, he sought to eliminate illusion, narrative and personal expression. For Aubertin, red became an absolute—an autonomous presence through which colour, material and space merged into one.
Unlike his later Tableaux Feu (Fire Paintings), for which he achieved international recognition, this early relief captures the foundations of his artistic philosophy before fire became his primary medium. Already, the work transcends conventional painting. The painted wooden surface functions as a physical object, occupying the space between painting and sculpture while asserting the material presence that would remain central to his practice.
As Aubertin famously stated:
"Art isn't expression, it's knowledge. You don't have something to say, you can only be."
Certified by the Archivio Opere Bernard Aubertin, this work is an exceptionally early and historically important example of Aubertin's monochrome production. It embodies the artist's decisive contribution to post-war European abstraction and the radical redefinition of painting pursued by the ZERO movement.
