Fantaisies - Isabelle Arthuis

Fantaisies - Isabelle Arthuis / 240-page paperback, 7.8 x 11.4 inches, published in 2025 by Lendroit Editions / bilingual edition (English / French) / ISBN 9782377510801

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An artist’s book, a work to be read, a journey through the history of painting, drawing on the collection of paintings at the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes.

Isabelle Arthuis worked for four years with the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes and its collections, as well as with the residents of the Maurepas district, as part of the prefiguration of the museum's second site, due to open in early February 2025. The artist has worked with the teams and residents on a photographic project, drawing on the works of art as well as the personal histories of each participant, to develop a range of visual projects that will be presented to the public at the inauguration of the new museum in Maurepas. In particular, Isabelle Arthuis took detailed shots of hundreds of paintings in the museum. Fantaisies is a testament to this approach.

Rather than a catalogue, the artist wanted to design a real artist's book, a project she carried out with Lendroit éditions, in partnership with the Musée des beaux-arts de Rennes. Fantaisies, composed of hundreds of shots of pictorial works, invites us to travel to the heart of the history of art, textures and ways of painting. The artist offers us a disconcerting view of collections from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, playing with visual sequences and chromatic scales. Constructed like a film, Fantaisies delves into the details of both famous and little-known works, taking readers on a journey to the heart of painting that is as mysterious as it is spellbinding.