1941

Born on April 20 in Château-Arnoux Saint-Auban in the Alpes of Haute-Provence.
His father, Jean-Marie Venet, a schoolteacher and chemist, dies at the age of forty-three, leaving his widow Adeline Gilly in charge of their four sons, of which Bernard is the youngest.

1947–1957
Attends grade school followed by Lycée Paul Lapie in Château-Arnoux Saint-Auban, Département des Alpes de Haute-Provence. Suffering from asthma, he is forced to spend long periods in a health spa in Saint-Raphaël on the Côte d’Azur. As a youth, attracted to religion, he wants to become a missionary. With the encouragement of a local artist, he draws and paints extensively by the age of ten. At eleven, Bernar is invited to exhibit a painting in the Salon de peinture Péchiney in Paris.

1958
Fails his entrance exam for the Decorative Arts School in Nice. Studies for one year at the Villa Thiole, the municipal art school of the city of Nice. When caught defending Picasso’s work to his fellow students, he is suspended for a week.

1959–1960
Works as an assistant stage designer for the Nice City Opera. Paints highly stylized pictures influenced by Paul Klee, which he describes as being in a symbolist style.

1961
In March, he joins the army and serves his mandatory twenty-two months. Initially assigned to the army selection center in Tarascon, he is granted access to an attic, which he converts into a studio. In the beginning, Venet’s works are gestural, and executed with his feet. Soon, they develop into black monochromes made with tar. He has himself photographed lying between garbage cans, an action that will be his first recorded performance. He begins his photographic work.

1962
Sent to Algeria for ten months to complete his military service.

1963
Returns to Nice. He sets up a studio in the old quarter, at 18 rue Parolière. Develops the tar paintings further and makes detailed photographs of gravel and coal piles, as well as asphalt. The Pile of Coal (“Tas de charbon”), the first sculpture without a specific shape, is considered today a major step for the artist in the development of his work. Becomes friends with Arman, and with some of the Paris Nouveaux Réalistes such as César, Hains, Villeglé, who offer to share their exhibitions with him. Towards the end of the year, he makes the first of his abstract Cardboard Reliefs, which he describes as industrial paintings.

1964
Venet participates in the Salon Comparaisons at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He exhibits alongside the Nouveaux Réalistes and American pop artists, despite the abstract nature of his Cardboard Reliefs. He also participates in the 1965 and 1967 exhibitions at the same Salon.

1966
First trip to New York in April and May. Initially lives in Arman’s studio at 84 Walker Street, previously Jean Tinguely’s workshop. Invited to participate in the exhibition Impact at the Musée de Céret in the Pyrénées, he sends a blueprint (industrial drawing) for a tube. Aware of the objective nature of blueprints, and their semantic character, he chooses diagrams as his subjects, which become his first monosemic works. Conceives of a ballet, Graduation, to be danced on a vertical plane; it is performed twenty-two years later. In December, he decides to settle permanently in New York.

1967
Rents a studio apartment on 14th Street and 1st Avenue. Visits Jack Ullman in the Nuclear Physics Departments at Columbia University. His conceptual work on scientific information develops along rational lines. Meets minimalist artists at the Dwan Gallery. Produces non-visual works on magnetic tape. His focus is on content, not on the form in which the content is rendered. Sets up a four-year program for himself with the intention to stop all art production upon its completion.

1968
Rents a room at the Chelsea Hotel. Exhibits in Prospect 1968 at the Dusseldorf Kunsthalle, along with Joseph Beuys and Marcel Broodthaers. Museums begin to acquire his work, among them: the Museum Haus Lange Krefeld, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Columbia University scientists collaborate with Venet in staging a performance at the Judson Church Theater. Meets Ella Bogval, whom he marries in 1971; they separate in 1982.

1969–1970
Moves into a SoHo loft, on Broadway Avenue, and designs his own furniture in a minimalistic aesthetic. Participates in the exhibition “Conception Konzeption” in Leverkusen, Germany. Travels and lectures in Europe, the United States, and Japan. Invited to participate in “Art by Telephone” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Ceases to make art as planned. Retrospective at the Museum Haus Lange Krefeld, Germany, organized by Paul Wember. Makes multiples for Bill Copley’s The Letter Edge in Black Press and Marianne Goodman’s Artist and Photography portfolio. Sees his work included in group exhibitions at Dwan, Leo Castelli, and Paula Cooper galleries.

1971
After the group exhibition “Conceptual Art and Conceptual Aspects”, a retrospective at the New York Cultural Center, Columbus Circle, Donald Karshan, who organized the exhibition, publishes a catalogue raisonné of Venet’s conceptual work. Birth of his twin sons, Alexandre and Stéphane.

1972–1973
Moves to Paris with his family. A period of reflection follows, where he writes about his own work. Introduces the concept of monosemy – borrowed from Jacques Bertin. In order to rectify comments he believes are not pertinent, he wishes to explain and specify the nature of his approach himself. Is present at the exhibition “72-Douze ans d’Art Contemporain” at the Grand Palais, Paris.

1974
Teaches a course in Art and Art Theory at the Sorbonne, Paris. Lectures at universities and art centers in France, England, Italy, Poland, and Belgium. First monograph by Catherine Millet published by Editions du Chêne, France, and Edizioni Prearo, Italy. Jean-Pierre Mirouze produces a film on him entitled Œuvre terminée, œuvre interminable. Exhibits his conceptual work at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London. Chosen to represent France at the XIII São Paulo Biennial, along with Gottfried Honegger and François Morellet.

1976
Returns to New York in September, and moves into a loft on West Broadway. Begins to work in his studio again. The first canvases from the series Angles and Arcs can be characterized as extremely restrained renderings of geometrical figures. Retrospective of his conceptual works at La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, California, organized by Sebastien Adler.

1977
Participates in Documenta VI, Kassel. Exhibition of recent paintings at the Musée d’Art moderne in Saint-Étienne, France.

1978
Participates, on the invitation of Achille Bonito Oliva, in “From Nature to Art. From Art to Nature” at the Venice Biennale.

1979
Begins a series of wood reliefs, Arcs, Angles, Diagonals, and introduces the first Indeterminate Line. Starts making steel sculptures composed of two arcs. Receives a grant from the “National Endowment for the Arts.”

1982
Moves to a loft at 533 Canal Street, New York.

1983
First maquettes for steel sculptures of Indeterminate Lines. Seth Schneidman produces the film Bernar Venet 1983.

1984
Invited by the Ministry of Culture for the commission of Arc majeur de 185.4˚. The project is never completed. Starts making his sculptures at Ateliers CMW Marioni, a foundry in the Vosges region of France. First exhibition of Indeterminate Lines at Galerie Templon, Paris.

1985
Meets Diane Segard, whom he marries in 1996.
First big sculptures of Indeterminate Lines.

1986
Receives commissions for public sculptures in Epinal; Nice; Austin, Texas; and Norfolk, Virginia. Shows at the Leo Castelli Gallery Uptown.

1987
For the 750th anniversary of the City of Berlin, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Air France commission a sculpture, 124.5˚ Arc, measuring 120 feet and sited at Alexanderplatz, near the clock on Urania Platz.

1988
Paris Opera director Jean-Louis Martinoty invites him to stage his ballet Graduation (conceived in 1966) at the salle Favard. The artist is author of the music, choreography, set designs, and costumes. Installation of Arc de 115.5° for Telic-Alcatel, Strasbourg. Receives commission for the monumental Two Indeterminate Lines to be sited at la Défense, Paris. Receives the prestigious “Design Award” in the United States. A monograph, Venet, by Jan van der Marck, is published by Les Editions de la Différence, Paris.

1989
Awarded the “Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris” by Jacques Chirac, Mayor of Paris. Performance piece La Ligne à vif (“The Live Line”) on November 23 at Galerie Templon, Paris. Installs Deux Arcs de 197.5° in Belley, France. Acquires a factory and watermill in Le Muy (Var), where he sets up to work and spend the summer months from then on. Laszlo Szalaï, of Hungarian descent, becomes his assistant.

1990
Installation of monumental sculpture Indeterminate Line at Place de Bordeaux, Strasbourg, France. First exhibition of his steel furniture at Galerie Mostra, Paris. First maquettes and large-scale versions of Random Combinations of Indeterminate Lines scattered on the floor.

1991
Works on several musical compositions, including Sons et Résonances, at the studio Miraval, Var. Two compact discs are released on the Circé-Paris label, Gravier Goudron, 1963, and Acier roulé E 24-2, 1990. Executes a series of new, heavy, torch-cut steel furniture. Noir, Noir et Noir, a book on photographic work from 1963 to 1990, is published by Editions Marval, Paris, with a text by Jean-Louis Schefer. Completes Le Rocher des trois croix, an homage to Giotto, Grünewald, and El Greco, which is raised atop a mountain in Roquebrune-sur-Argens, in the Var region of France. Filming of Bernar Venet, Lines by Thierry Spitzer and Jean-Marie del Moral begins and will be completed in 1996.

1992
Records the roar of the engines of a Concorde airplane for the musical composition Mur du son (“Wall of Sound”). Shoots the film Acier roulé XC-10 at the Ateliers CMW Marioni. Travels to Japan for the inauguration of an Indeterminate Line in Adachi-ku, Tokyo. Starts work on a series of steel reliefs composed of arrows, Arbitrary and Simultaneous Directions. Participates in the exhibition Manifeste at the Centre Pompidou.

1993
Invited to participate in the Artists Film Festival in Montreal with Acier roulé XC-10. Retrospective exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain in Nice, which then travels to the Wilhelm-Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen, Germany.

1994
Mayor of Paris Jacques Chirac invites him to present twelve sculptures from his Indeterminate Line series on the Champ-de-Mars, Paris, from May through July. This exhibition inaugurates a world tour of Venet’s sculptures. Works on his first Straight Lines sculptures. Appearance of the monograph by Carter Ratcliff, Bernar Venet, published by Abbeville Press, New York, and Cercle d’Art, Paris.

1995
In May, travels to Hong Kong for the inauguration of the China venue of his Champ-de-Mars sculptures at the Museum of Modern Art. In June, travels to Graphicstudio in Tampa, Florida, for an edition of large mono-prints made with tar and a steamroller. Develops his new work on the theme of the straight line and calls them Accidents. New reliefs executed in steel with an acetylene torch: Indeterminate Surfaces.

1996
Invited as a Master in Residence to the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida. Awarded the order of Commandeur dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres by the Minister of Culture in France. Thierry Spitzer films an installation of Accident, chronicling one of the new works composed of straight lines, which are also exhibited at the Galerie Karsten Grève in Paris and at the Espace Fortant de France in Sète. From May through July the city of Brussels invites him to exhibit ten large sculptures from his Indeterminate Line series on Avenue Franklin Roosevelt.

1997
Moves to a new studio in Chelsea, New York. Begins a series of sculptures, Arc x 4 and Arc x 5. Designs a museum complex for an exhibition in the Espace de l’Art Concret, in Mouans-Sartoux, France. Becomes a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Salzburg.

1998
Travels to China, invited by the Mayor of Shanghai, to participate in the Shanghai International Sculpture Symposium. Further develops the series Indeterminate Surfaces.

1999
The third and definitive version of the film, Tarmacadam (1963) is finished with the help of Arkadin Productions for the exhibition Bernar Venet: 1961-1963 at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva. Publication of a compilation of his poetry, Apoétiques 1967-1998, by the same museum. Public commission, 134.5˚ Arc, for the inauguration of the new university UNI MAIL in Geneva.

2000
Develops a new series of wall paintings, Major Equations, which are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, and Saõ Paulo, and at the Centre d’Art contemporain Georges Pompidou in Cajarc as well as at the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain in Geneva. A year with many monographs: Bernar Venet 1961-1970, a monograph by Robert Morgan published by Edition des Cahiers Intempestifs; Bernar Venet: Sculptures & Reliefs, written by Arnauld Pierre and published by Edizioni Prearo; La Conversion du regard, with texts and interviews from 1975 to 2000, published by Editions MAMCO, Geneva. Publication of a catalogue: Global Diagonals, a catalogue with a text by Jan van der Marck concerning a humanistic, artistic, and technological project with straight lines (each 300 feet in length) virtually connecting the five continents.

2001
Editions Assouline publishes Furniture, with a text by Claude Lorent, a book presenting the steel furniture design by the artist since 1968 in conjunction with an exhibition of his furniture at the Galerie Rabouan Moussion at SM’ART (Salon du mobilier et de l’objet design) at the Caroussel du Louvre, Paris.
Inauguration of the Chapelle Saint-Jean in Château-Arnoux. The stained glass windows and all the furniture are designed by Bernar Venet.
2002
Solo performance evening incorporating the artist’s poetry, film, and music at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. The European Academy of Sciences and Arts invites him to make a presentation at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum on the theme of “Arts as a Mediator of Tolerance.” Solo exhibition of his sculptures at the Robert Miller Gallery in New York, and of his new equation paintings at Ludwigsmuseum, Koblenz, and at Anthony Grant Inc., New York. Monograph by Thomas McEvilley on his complete body of work published in French, German, and English by Artha and Benteli Verlag. For the duration of summer, twelve large sculptures are exhibited at The Fields of Art Omi International Sculpture Park, New York. In November, the show moves to the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach in Florida.

2003
Seventeen solo exhibitions, including a retrospective of early work from 1961 to 1963 at the Hôtel des Arts in Toulon, France, with a publication of Bernar Venet 1961-1963 by Thierry Lenain. An exhibition of interior views of the artist’s body made with a MRI, “Autoportrait”, at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain in Nice. Donald Kuspit is the author of the first book on the artist’s Equation paintings, Art and Mathematics: In Search of the Sublime, published by L’Yeuse, Paris. Participant with Ben and Bernard Heidsieck in Poésie-Performance at the Espace de l’Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France. Temporary installations of large sculptures: at Schloss Herberstein, Austria; on the Promenade des Anglais, Nice; throughout the city of Luxembourg; in the city of Bad Homburg, Germany; in the Jardin des Tuileries, Paris. Ferenc Szalaï opens a factory in Nagykörös, Hungary, which will serve the artist as an exclusive fabrication facility.

2004
Three simultaneous solo exhibitions in New York: at Robert Miller Gallery, at Jim Kempner Fine Art, and on the Park Avenue Malls between 50th and 54th Streets. His traveling sculpture show moves to the city of Liège, Belgium; to Kennedy Park, in Miami; to downtown Denver. Publication with Hard Press Editions of Art: A Matter of Context, a book on his writings and interviews spanning 1975 to 2003. A year of large commissions: for the new headquarters of Bosch in Stuttgart; for AGF, Paris; for the Colorado Convention Center, in Denver. Retrospective of the artist’s Arcs at the Musée Sainte-Croix in Poitiers. Invited by Barbara Rose to exhibit in “Monochromos” at the Reina Sofia in Madrid. Participates in “Intramuros” at the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain in Nice.

2005
On January 1, the French government awards him the order of Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. His sculptures continue to tour Europe in Knokke-le-Zoute, and in North America, in Chicago. Exhibits his Autoportraits tomodensitométriques during Les Rencontres internationales de la photographie in Arles, at the Musée de l’Arles et de la Provence antiques. Invited by RoseLee Goldberg to participate in “Performa 05”, a biennial of performance artwork in New York.

2006
Receives the Robert Jacobsen prize for sculpture from the Würth Stiftung in France. Completion and inauguration of a new gallery space in Le Muy for large sculpture installations. There, he installs a sculpture entitled, “Straight Lines / Disorder / Steel XC10 / 140 Bars / 100 tons”. Participates in “La Force de l’art”, Grand Palais, Paris. Exhibits a group of large sculptures in Forest Park, St. Louis. An installation of four monumental Arcs is acquired by the city of Liège. Selected by the jury at the Ministry of Culture in Paris to paint the ceiling of the Galerie du Palais Cambon of the Cour des Comptes in Paris in celebration of the establishment’s bicentennial in 2007.

2007
Inauguration of Saturation on the ceiling of the Cour des Comptes in Paris by President Jacques Chirac. A retrospective of his work 1961-2007 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul opens in May. The cities of Bordeaux and Metz will each play host to exhibitions of large sculptures during the summer months. June sees the installation of 2 Arcs of 135.5˚ and 100.5˚, measuring 25 meters tall, commissioned for the Toulouse Métro.

2008
Following their annual sculpture exhibitions in Florida, Sotheby’s for the first time invites a single artist – Bernar Venet – to present his work on the grounds of the Isleworth Country Club. From January through April 2008, approximately twenty-five monumental sculptures showcase the artist’s work of the last two decades, highlighting some of his most distinctive themes. In the fall, the city of San Diego hosts a dozen of the artist’s sculptures in California.

2009
Establishes the Fondation Venet in the United States. L’Espace de l’Art Concret in Mouans-Sartoux stages the first public exhibition of artwork from the Venet Family Collection. In June, the Arsenale Novissimo grants him 1,200 square meters of space in the 53rd Venice Biennale to exhibit four new monumental sculpture installations. A survey of paintings and sculptures is mounted at the Kunsthalle Darmstadt in Germany, before moving to the Palais des Beaux Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels. Venet develops variations on his “shaped canvas” paintings set on a gold background.

2010
Valencia’s IVAM mounts a retrospective of Venet’s conceptual work as well as a full survey of his paintings under the curatorship of Barbara Rose. The Texan-French Alliance of the Arts and McClain Gallery lead the charge of bringing Public Art to Houston, in the form of 10 large-scale sculptures by Venet installed in Hermann Park. The Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur organizes for another group of 10 sculptures in the Krauthügel in Salzburg, Austria, in view of the Hohensalzburg fortress.
President Nicolas Sarkozy inaugurates a sculpture of 9 Straight Lines, measuring 30 meters tall, on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, France to in honor of the 150th anniversary of the city’s reunification with France. Dongkuk Steel Mill commissions a 38-meter tall Arc sculpture on the façade of their headquarters, Ferrum Tower, in Seoul, Korea.
The Museum “les Abattoirs” in Toulouse presents the contemporary art collection of the artist and his family. A selection of works by Bernar Venet were integrated in the exhibition to showcase the close relationships between the artist and his friends whose works he collected. Two Indeterminate Lines of 12 meters tall was installed at “Hannam The Hill” in Seoul.

2011
Painting retrospective mounted at the Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea to cover 50 years of paintings (1961-2011).
Following Jeff Koons, Xavier Veilhan, and Takashi Murakami, is invited by the Château de Versailles, and the Château de Marly, in France for a major solo exhibition of his monumental sculptures. He presents seven monumental sculptures, made especially for the exhibition, including 85.8° x 16, composed of two groups of arcs of a height of 22 meters, which frame Louis XIV’s equestrian statue, in the Château’s perspective. At the same time , the Gallery Pierre-Alain Challier in Paris dedicated an important show of sculptures, prints and drawings.

A film, “Sculptures” is produced by Thierry Spitzer for the occasion.
At the same time in Paris, from September to October 2011, the Gallery Pierre-Alain Challier dedicated an important exhibition to his works on paper, prints and drawings, and iron sculptures, including the models of the sculptures in Versailles. A rare limited edition was created exceptionally by the artist himself.
Over the summer, the Hôtel des Arts in Toulon exhibits the artist’s paintings from 2001 to 2011, with a focus on mathematical equations.
Exhibited twice in the city of Valenciennes, France: for their Festival international de sculptures, as well as in an exhibition at the Musée des Beaux-Arts.
Traveling sculpture show went to Frankfurt, Germany and the Poppy & Pierre Salinger Foundation in France. Other exhibitions include: the Garage Von Bartha in Basel and the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz.
Developed his work on steel wall reliefs (“GRIB”), which he inaugurated at the Garage von Bartha in Basel, Switzerland, among a selection of his paintings and recent sculptures associated to historical works.

2012
Inauguration in January of a retrospective at the Müscarnok Museum in Budapest, Hungary. A monograph accompanying the exhibition is published covering the artist’s pictorial work (1961-2011).
Exhibition of works from the new “GRIB” series at the Gow Langsford Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand, while 88.5° Arc x 8, a 27-meter tall sculpture, was inaugurated at The Gibbs Farm in March.
The artist will exhibit at the Galerie Forsblom in June, along with outdoor sculpture exhibitions in Helsinki, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
The IVAM announces that the International Julio González Prize for 2013 will be awarded to Venet.