Agnès Thurnauer
Biography
Franco-Swiss artist born in 1962, lives in Paris and works in Ivry-sur-Seine (Val-de-Marne).
A graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 1985, she works in series - regularly enriched by new works - in dialogue with one another, weaving figure and abstraction, text and image, in a highly performative relationship with the space of the painting.
Language - the basis of relationships with others on both an intimate and societal scale - is the backbone of his work. In the “Big-big and Bang-bang” series of paintings, initiated in 1995, non-gendered anthropomorphic forms stand in duet before the viewer, inviting contemplative complicity. The work transposes the relationship to art, to oneself and to the other in a mirror game that brings non-verbal communication to the surface.
In the “Prédelles” series, begun in 2007, language, by contrast, takes center stage. Like open books, these diptychs revolve around a word cut into syllables and echoed plastically. The work is read and linked to the painted and drawn forms, in a background movement that brings meaning to the surface of the canvas.
In 2003, Agnès Thurnauer created her first “Portraits grandeur nature”, questioning the place of women artists in history and in institutions, and to restore their presence, long overlooked. In a format reminiscent of both the tondi of the Italian Renaissance and the pins of pop culture, she feminizes and disrupts the gender of artists' names in the pantheon of art history, underlining the necessarily composite nature of identities. The “Portraits grandeur nature” welcomed viewers to the exhibition "Elles" @Centre Pompidou in 2009, and were recently exhibited at the National Museum of World Writing Systems in South Korea in 2024.
This close interweaving of reflections on history and words continues in her pictorial work with the “Peintures d'histoires” series. Begun in 2005, this series invites a new reading of iconic paintings, weaving together the written word and the image. Words are first painted on the surface of the canvas, like a grid, then the figure takes shape between the letters. Sometimes, the text offers an intimate voice to previously impassive models.
“History is geography”, Agnès Thurnauer likes to say. This imaginary formula is embodied in the “Mapping the studio” series, where she depicts the studio floor as a map, with paintings as territories and all temporalities coexisting, without a single direction.
In the same way, Thurnauer documents the studio space and explores the boundaries of her thinking through writing. Her notes, which are also a diary of encounters and events that punctuate her work with words and images, materials and forms, were collected for the book L'Amour de la peinture, with a preface by Tiphaine Samoyault.
Transposing the game of dialogue with past artists and their works into a literary game, in 2022 she imagines, in the same movement from brush to pen, a correspondence with Henri Matisse on the occasion of his monographic exhibition at the Musée Matisse in Nice. On this occasion, she wrote and published fifty letters addressed to her “Cher Henri”.
Developed in 2010, the “Matrices”, sculptures made from molds of letters, offer, in the form of seats, the pleasure of apprehending language with the body, through the body. Since 2021, they have been permanently installed at the Musée de l'Orangerie and are the subject of a major public commission by the French Ministry of Culture in the urban space of Ivry-sur-Seine.
Once again in a game of mirrors, “Tablettes”, the last series created in 2022, revives the dialogue with language and the written word. They are paintings and signs. These hearts of letters echo the “Matrices” of which they represent the hollow, the silence, the rhythm overflowing the vowels and composing a score like a dance traced by the brush.
Agnès Thurnauer has had numerous solo exhibitions in France and abroad, including at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2003), the SMAK in Ghent, Belgium (2007), the Musée LaM in Villeneuve d'Ascq (2022), the Musée Matisse in Nice (2022), the Musée d'Art Moderne in Fontevraud (2023) and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland (2025). Her work is included in numerous international private collections, as well as public collections in France, including the Centre Pompidou, Musée de l'Armée, Musée national de l'histoire de l'immigration, Musée des Beaux-arts de Nantes, Musée des Beaux-arts d'Angers, Musée Unterlinden in Colmar, Fonds d'art contemporain - Paris Collections and FRACs (Bretagne, Auvergne, Île de France).
Selected works
Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (now #15) , 2025
acrylic on canvas
55 x 33 cm (21.65 x 12.99 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR25446
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (now #14) , 2025
acrylic on canvas
55 x 33 cm (21.65 x 12.99 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR25445
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Agnès Thurnauer
Grande Prédelle (Maintenant) , 2025
acrylic on canvas
150 x 270 cm (59.06 x 106.3 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR25442
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Agnès Thurnauer
Baby Big-Big #12 , 2024
acrylic and collage on canvas, wooden frame
27 x 41 cm (10.63 x 16.14 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR25441
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Agnès Thurnauer
Baby Big-Big #11 , 2024
acrylic and collage marouflaged on wood, wooden frame
27 x 35 x 2,9 cm (10.63 x 13.78 x 0.79 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR24439
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Agnès Thurnauer
Tablette , 2024
acrylic on canvas, wooden frame
81 x 60 cm (31.89 x 23.62 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR24427
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Agnès Thurnauer
Tablette #33 , 2024
acrylic on canvas, wooden frame
162 x 121,5 cm (63.78 x 47.64 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR24426
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Agnès Thurnauer
Tablette #29 , 2024
acrylic on canvas, wooden frame
162 x 121,5 cm (63.78 x 47.64 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR24424
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Agnès Thurnauer
Tablette #19 , 2024
acrylic on canvas, wooden frame
81 x 60 cm (31.5 x 23.62 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR24419
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Agnès Thurnauer
Figure #4 , 2023
acrylic on canvas
216 x 136,8 cm (85.04 x 53.54 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR23404
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (not yet #4) , 2022
2 elements : acrylique on canvas, wooden frames
55 x 33 cm (21.6 x 13 in.) each
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR23376
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (préface #2) , 2022
2 elements : acrylique on canvas, wooden frames
55 x 33 cm (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR22368
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (translation #2) , 2022
2 elements : acrylique on canvas, wooden frames
55 x 38 cm (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR22364
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (Crossing #2) , 2021
2 elements, acrylic on canvas, wooden frames
21.65 x 12.99 in. (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR21304
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Agnès Thurnauer
Matrices/Assises (XXY) , 2020
varnished bronze
45 x variable x variable cm (17.72 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR20283
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (sentence #2) , 2018
2 elements, acrylic, pencil on canvas, wooden frames
55 x 38 cm (21.65 x 15 in.) (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19236
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (indeed) , 2018
2 elements, acrylic, pencil on canvas
55 x 38 cm (21.65 x 15 in.) (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19229
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (abstract #1) , 2018
2 elements : acrylique on canvas, wooden frames
21.65 x 13 in. (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19195
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (Border) , 2017
2 elements, acrylic on canvas, wooden frames
21.65 x 14.96 in. (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR20271
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Agnès Thurnauer
Prédelle (language) , 2017
2 elements : acrylique and pencil on canvas, wooden frames
55 x 38 cm (21.65 x 15 in.) (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19230
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Agnès Thurnauer
XXstory papier #9 , 2015
pencil on paper
24 x 32 cm (9.45 x 12.6 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19188
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Agnès Thurnauer
Virginia Valadon , 2014
acrylic on canvas, wooden frame
150 x 200 cm (59.06 x 78.74 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19179
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Agnès Thurnauer
Matrices/Assises , 2013-ongoing
brushed aluminium
45 x variable x variable cm (17.72 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR20276
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Agnès Thurnauer
Autoportrait (into abstraction) , 2013
pencil on canvas, wooden frame, glass
195 x 130 cm (76.77 x 51.18 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR24421
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Agnès Thurnauer
Big-Big & Bang-Bang , 2010
acrylic on canvas
189,5 x 175 cm (74.41 x 68.9 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR20284
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Agnès Thurnauer
Grandes Ailes Complementaires , 2010
acrylic and wood on canvas framed
95 x 195 cm (37.4 x 76.77 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19047
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Agnès Thurnauer
Portrait Grandeur Nature (Jacqueline Lacan) , 2009
resin and epoxy paint
120 x 120 x 15 cm (47.24 x 47.24 x 5.91 in)
Edition of 3 + 2 EA
Private collection, Paris, France
N° Inv. THUR19008
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Agnès Thurnauer
Portrait Grandeur Nature (Francine Bacon) , 2008
resin and epoxy paint
120 x 120 x 15 cm (47.24 x 47.24 x 5.91 in)
Edition of 3 + 2 EA
Collection : MNAM - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
N° Inv. THUR19006
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Agnès Thurnauer
Grande Prédelle (random) , 2007
2 elements, acrylic on canvas, wooden frame
195 x 115 cm (each)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR22359
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Agnès Thurnauer
Cartels #2 , 2007
4 elements, acrylic on canvas, wooden frames
each: 30 x 60 cm (11.81 x 23.62 in.)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19168
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Agnès Thurnauer
Portrait Grandeur Nature (Marcelle Duchamp) , 2007
resin and epoxy paint
120 x 120 x 15 cm (47.24 x 47.24 x 5.91 in)
Edition of 3 + 2 EA
Collection : MNAM - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France ; Private collection, Paris
N° Inv. THUR19015
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Agnès Thurnauer
Portrait Grandeur Nature (Joséphine Beuys) , 2007
resin and epoxy paint
120 x 120 x 15 cm (47.24 x 47.24 x 5.91 in)
Edition of 3 + 2 EA
N° Inv. THUR19012
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Agnès Thurnauer
Portrait Grandeur Nature (Annie Warhol) , 2007
resin and epoxy paint
120 x 120 x 15 cm (47.24 x 47.24 x 9.84 in)
Edition of 3 + 2 EA
Collection : MNAM - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France / Private collection, Paris, France
N° Inv. THUR19004
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Agnès Thurnauer
Sans titre #1 , 2006 - 2015
acrylic on canvas, wooden frame
116 x 89 cm (45.67 x 35.04 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19175
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Agnès Thurnauer
L'annoncée , 2002
acrylic, felt and adhesive tape mounted on canvas mounted on canvas, wooden frame
229 x 219 cm (90.16 x 86.22 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19133
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Agnès Thurnauer
Peinture primaire , 2000
acrylic, paper and adhesive tape on canvas mounted on canvas
203 x 183 cm (79.92 x 72.05 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19128
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Agnès Thurnauer
Big-Big & Bang-Bang #12 , 1995
acrylic on marouflaged canvas
195 x 180 cm (76.77 x 70.87 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR23372
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Agnès Thurnauer
Big-Big & Bang-Bang #10 , 1995
acrylic on canvas mounted on canvas
205 x 170 cm (80.71 x 66.93 in)
unique artwork
N° Inv. THUR19072
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Gallery exhibitions
Museum exhibitions
Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
MO.CO, Montpellier, 2024
MO.CO, Montpellier, 2024
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Ici poème (cur. David Lemaire et Marie Gaitzsch), Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Ici poème (cur. David Lemaire et Marie Gaitzsch), Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Ici poème (cur. David Lemaire et Marie Gaitzsch), Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Ici poème (cur. David Lemaire et Marie Gaitzsch), Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Ici poème (cur. David Lemaire et Marie Gaitzsch), Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Ici poème (cur. David Lemaire et Marie Gaitzsch), Musée des Beaux-Arts La Chaux-De-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Suisse, 2025
Parade, une scène française. Collection Laurent Dumas MO.CO, Montpellier, 2024
Parade, une scène française. Collection Laurent Dumas MO.CO, Montpellier, 2024
Lacan, l'exposition, (cur. Marie-Laure Bernadac et Bernard Marcadé), Centre Pompidou Metz, 2024, ph. Marc Domage
Lacan, l'exposition, (cur. Marie-Laure Bernadac et Bernard Marcadé), Centre Pompidou Metz, 2024, ph. Marc Domage
Aliénor L'Ouragane, Musée d'art moderne de Fontevraud, Fontevraud l'Abbaye, France, 2023 © Margot Montigny
Aliénor L'Ouragane, Musée d'art moderne de Fontevraud, Fontevraud l'Abbaye, France, 2023 © Margot Montigny
Aliénor L'Ouragane, Musée d'art moderne de Fontevraud, Fontevraud l'Abbaye, France, 2023 © Margot Montigny
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
On se retrouve chez toi (cur. Claudine Grammont), Musée Matisse, Nice, France, 2022
Près d'elle, Librairie Métamorphose, Paris, France, 2022
Oral Texte, Fondation d'entreprise Pernod Ricard, 2022
Fernande Olivier et Pablo Picasso, dans l'intimité du Bateau-Lavoir, Musée de Montmartre, Paris, 2022
A comme Boa (cur. Sebastien Delot & Grégoire Prangé), LaM, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Lille Metropole, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2022, ph: Nicolas DeWitte
A comme Boa (cur. Sebastien Delot & Grégoire Prangé), LaM, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Lille Metropole, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2022, ph: Nicolas DeWitte
A comme Boa (cur. Sebastien Delot & Grégoire Prangé), LaM, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Lille Metropole, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2022, ph: Nicolas DeWitte
A comme Boa (cur. Sebastien Delot & Grégoire Prangé), LaM, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Lille Metropole, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2022, ph: Nicolas DeWitte
A comme Boa (cur. Sebastien Delot & Grégoire Prangé), LaM, Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Lille Metropole, Villeneuve-d'Ascq, 2022, ph: Nicolas DeWitte
Matrices/Assises/Ivry, Ivry-sur-Seine, 2021
Hahaha. L'humour de l'art, Kanal - Centre Pompidou x ING Art Center, Bruxelles, Belgique, 2021
Hahaha. L'humour de l'art, Kanal - Centre Pompidou x ING Art Center, Bruxelles, Belgique, 2021
Rrose c'est la Life, Centre d'Art Contemporain Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur, France, 2021
Rrose c'est la Life, Centre d'Art Contemporain Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur, France, 2021
Rrose c'est la Life, Centre d'Art Contemporain Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur, France, 2021
Rrose c'est la Life, Centre d'Art Contemporain Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur, France, 2021
Rrose c'est la Life, Centre d'Art Contemporain Bouvet Ladubay, Saumur, France, 2021
Napoléon ? Encore !, cur. Eric de Chassey, Musée de l'Armée, Invalides, Paris, France, 2021
Napoléon ? Encore !, cur. Eric de Chassey, Musée de l'Armée, Invalides, Paris, France, 2021
Matrices chromatiques, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France, 2020
Matrices chromatiques, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France, 2020
Matrices chromatiques, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France, 2020
Land and language, Fondation Thalie, Brussels, Belgium, 2020
Land and language, Fondation Thalie, Brussels, Belgium, 2020
Land and language, Fondation Thalie, Brussels, Belgium, 2020
Land and Language, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia, 2016
Nouvel accrochage des collections, musée Unterlinden, Colmar, France, 2018
Thurnauer à Angers, Musée des beaux-arts d'Angers, France, 2009
Thurnauer à Angers, Musée des beaux-arts d'Angers, France, 2009
Notre histoire, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, 2006
Biennale de Lyon, France, 2005
BIS - Biennale de Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, 2018
Sculpture in the Close, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK, 2017
Sculpture in the Close, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK, 2017
Matrice / Assise (Portrait de femme), Private collection, France, 2017
Matrice / Assise (from A to A), Private collection, Greece, 2017
Préfigurer, Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, 2016
Préfigurer, Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, 2016
Préfigurer, Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, 2016
Préfigurer, Galerie Fernand Léger, Ivry-sur-Seine, France, 2016
Enfermement, musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint Denis, France, 2019
Enfermement, musée d'art et d'histoire de Saint Denis, France, 2019
Land and Language, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia, 2016
Land and Language, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia, 2016
Une histoire de la peinture- collection Philippe Méaille, Chateau de Montsoreau, Anjou, France, 2016
Women taking over Women artists from the Pompidou Center, Seattle Art Museum, USA, 2012
Elles, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 2009
Parcours Saint-Germain, Paris, France, 2009
Francine Picabia, CCCOD, Tours, France, 2008
Francine Picabia, CCCOD, Tours, France, 2008
Francine Picabia, CCCOD, Tours, France, 2008
Bien faite, mal faite, pas faite, SMAK, Ghent, Belgium, 2007
Bien faite, mal faite, pas faite, SMAK, Ghent, Belgium, 2007
Bien faite, mal faite, pas faite, SMAK, Ghent, Belgium, 2007
Moving Numbers, CNDC, Angers, France, 2017
Videos
EXHIBITION
Agnes Thurnauer's exhibition "La traverser", Michel Rein, Paris, 2021
Matisse/Thurnauer #1
Agnès Thurnauer's exhibition « On se retrouve chez toi » at Musée Matisse, Nice, 2022, curated by Claudine Grammont
Matisse/Thurnauer #3
Agnès Thurnauer's exhibition « On se retrouve chez toi » at Musée Matisse, Nice, 2022, curated by Claudine Grammont
Matisse/Thurnauer #5
Agnès Thurnauer's exhibition « On se retrouve chez toi » at Musée Matisse, Nice, 2022, curated by Claudine Grammont
Performance of Anna Chirescu and Alexandra Grimal, Michel Rein, Paris, 2023
CONVERSATION
Conversation with artist Agnès Turnauer, Cécile Debray and Clément dirié, Michel rein, Paris, 2023
INTERVIEW
Interview by Connaissance des arts on the theme "restitute or interpret ? »
Agnès Thurnauer - Aliénor l'Ouragane
Conversation between Agnès Thurnauer and Gatien Du Bois, co-curator of the exhibition Aliénor l'Ouragane at Fontevraud I Le Musée d'art Moderne, 2023.
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Press
Great.Artmag
Jazz de Matisse au prsent : 8 variations contemporaines au DrawingLab
2025
L'Humanité
"Ici Pome" : Agns Thurauer, la peintre qui joue sur les mots
2025
Le Quotidien de l'Art
Peinture figurative, le grand retour
2025
The Art Newspaper
Art Paris Art Fair devient la voix française
2025
Marie Claire
Le nouveau prix qui soutient les artistes femmes
2025
The Art Newspaper
Immortelle : la scène française en peinture
2025
Madame Figaro
Art Paris. Synergie positive
2025
Le Quotidien de l'Art
12 : Les finalistes du prix Her Art 2025
2025
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Publications
Immortelle. Un parcours dans la peinture française de 1945 à nos jours
Publisher: Lord Byron
2023
Agnès Thurnauer
Publisher: jrp editions
2023
Agnès Thurnauer, Aliénor l'Ouragane
Publisher: Musée d'Art moderne de Fontevraud et Bernard Chauveau Édition
2023
Cher Henri, correspondances avec Matisse
Publisher: Bernard Chauveau
2022
Préd elles
Publisher: Librairie Métamorphoses
2022
Josefffine n°11
Publisher:
2019
A comme Boa
Publisher: Thalie Art Foundation
2018
Préfigurer
Publisher: Galerie Fernand Léger
2016
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