At Andrée Putman’s Paris loft, locally based Italian art adviser Valerio Polimeno brings to life his dream project, an exhibition of work by Nigerian artist Jamiu Agboke in collaboration with the Viennese-Neapolitan gallery VIN VIN. Agboke’s work seduces with an interplay of light and nature, which is precisely the element Polimeno wanted to introduce to the Parisian art crowd. He envisaged the delicately captured scenes hung in the unique loft, previously lived in and designed by 'la grande dame of minimalism’.
Polimeno was single-minded. 'The show venue has to be this location. Otherwise it would not feel right.' He had his reasons for pursuing the loft: firstly, it linked to the sense of light shared by the product and interior designer with the artist; secondly, it was a fit with the show’s title, ‘Vertigo’ (shared by a recent work by Agboke, and Putman’s silverware collection for Christofle, one of the house’s best-selling lines).
Jamiu Agboke at Andrée Putman’s Paris loft
Adboke is a rising figure of the art scene, with a self-declared premise to explore the boundaries of painting. Vincenzo Della Corte, the founder of VIN VIN, values the artist’s thinking around paintings. 'He takes the elements of nature and crystalises them in abstract composition, or narratives,' he says. 'What we see here is the light and the gestures. He has lots of historical references yet absorbs all the tradition of painting and they sparkle.'
Polimeno joins the gallery owner in his praise: 'His mastery of technique, putting together movement, light and colour, is quite incredible. For him, the landscape is no longer the subject. And he is very precise with his colour palette. When I visited his studio in east London, I saw plenty of spots of the specific yellow and green that I had never seen anywhere else.'
Polimeno is happy seeing Agboke’s poetic yet electric paintings of quasi-acidic colours finally set in the space he imagined. Situated between Saint-Germain-Des-Prés and Quartier Latin, the loft occupies the last two floors of a traditional Parisian 18th-century building. The show stands in a vast room, with the smaller pieces simply placed on top of drawer units against huge windows, while various formats, large, small or long and narrow are rhythmically hung on a white wall.
After Putman's passing in 2013, it was Peter Lindbergh who acquired the loft, and his family still owns it. The current interior is arranged with the late photographer’s furniture but the industrial structure is original, and it includes the metallic ceiling and the visible beams, steel columns, a bay window, as well as the bedroom (a room within a room), enclosed by white curtained glass panels. Another legacy of the designer is the bathroom, showing her obsession with pure lines, with its grid-like white tiles. A ‘Satellite’ mirror (1927), a masterpiece by Eileen Gray, is also recognisable there. It is quite striking to see the art in this intimate setting.
Polimeno admires the purity of Putman’s design, but that’s not all. Since he read her biography, he is also fascinated by her as a person. 'She was such an open-minded, sharp, smart, incredibly sophisticated and strong woman,' he observes. 'She was well born but has never lived like a bourgeois. And she has always been curious about young people and pushing new talent. I love the idea of offering an opportunity and want to create a long-term relationship with the artists and the galleries.'
In spite of its short duration and the word-of-mouth communication, this show is creating a buzz among art professionals and collectors. This enthusiasm is inspiring Polimeno for future projects, while Agboke is preparing his next show at Sea View Gallery in Los Angeles, due to open in April 2024.
‘Vertigo: Jamiu Agboke’ is on view until 3 March 2024
