About: Biography

Born in Oran on 10 December 1936, Sabine Monirys was a self-taught artist.
In the early 1960s, “Sabine” (as she signed her works at the time) made naive paintings in which a little girl gets lost in sceneries distorted by dreams.
Her circle at the time included the Chinese painter San-yu as well as Jan Voss, Cheval-Bertrand, Lourdes Castro, Roland Topor and Guy de Cointet, whom she had known since adolescence.
Married to Jacques Monory with whom she had a son, Sabine became friends with the photographer Robert Frank, who had just published The Americans. Despite the ups and downs of their respective lives, Frank and Sabine never stopped writing to each other. Their friendship lasted almost half a century.
In 1967, Sabine met Jérôme Savary, director of the Grand Magic Circus. They fell madly in love. Pregnant with her second son, she was the heroine of Letizia, a photo-novel conceived by Savary for the Milan-based magazine Ali Baba.
She worked with the Grand Magic Circus, illustrated a children’s book with Jacques Prévert and another with Roland Topor.
In her studio on Rue Santos-Dumont, in the 15 th arrondissement of Paris, where she moved with her sons Antoine and Robinson in 1974, Sabine began working on large-format canvases which she signed “Sabine Monirys.” Her paintings became more confident, melding tragedy and tender irony.
Her literary passions (Handke, Woolf, Bernhard, Walser) came to the fore in her singular choice of titles or phrases, which she collected in notebooks and then affixed to her works.
She had her first solo exhibition at the Fred Lanzenberg gallery in Brussels in 1975. Two others followed in Paris: at Galerie du Rhinocéros in 1976 and Galerie Krief & Raymond in 1979.
Monirys contributed to various magazines (Daily-Bul & Co, Sorcières, etc.) and took part in a number of group exhibitions. Her work was championed by critics such as Alain Jouffroy, Pierre Gaudibert, Gilbert Lascaut and Olivier Kaepplin, as well as the eminent critic at Le Matin de Paris, Maïten Bouisset.
In 1977, Monirys took part in the Saõ Paulo Bieñal. Her increasingly accomplished paintings registered the violence of the world, often taking inspiration from press photos.
In 1980, she exhibited at the Venice Biennale – the only French woman to have had this “privilege” between 1970 and 1982. However, this moment of “glory” left her with a bitter taste: a painting of hers entitled Les Couteaux me terrifient (Knives Terrify Me) was stabbed by a maniac in the exhibition.
In 1983, Monirys exhibited at J. and J. Donguy in Paris. She moved to the 13 th arrondissement in Paris, where she would live until her death.
Between 1976 and 1985, several emblematic works by Monirys entered the collections of institutions such as the MAM in Paris, the MAMC in Strasbourg, the Musée de Grenoble and the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, as well as major private collections in France and abroad.
In 1986, Sabine Monirys made a radical switch. She painted faces on paper, tore them up and kept only the eyes, then dropped the shreds loose in a storm of paint. The canvas was lacerated, scratched and crumpled, and sometimes contained debris that became part of the painting. She exhibited these works on paper at Galerie Hérold, Brussels, in 1991.
In the early 1990s, Sabine Monirys turned to sculpture and drawing. She studded her figures with nails and shards of glass (the “âmes barbelées” [barbed souls] series) and filled notebooks with angry drawings.
These drawings form a fresco in which nightmares and sexual visions are counterpointed by gratingly humorous phrases gleaned from the press.
A book on which she collaborated with the writer Nicolas Vatimbella and published in 2001 by Éditions du Seuil brought together some of these drawings under the title En vain l’azur.
Deeply affected by the stroke suffered by her son Antoine Monory in 2003, Sabine Monirys began work on a kind of diary; mixing plants, herbs and dried flower petals with aphorisms or thoughts written in pencil, she composed tiny notebooks that she called “herbiers” (herbariums).
Over time, Moniry’s works become funnier, freer and, in the end, more peaceful, as if, going beyond her intimate struggles, the artist had achieved the wisdom to which she aspired.
Sabine Monirys died in Paris on 4 March 2016.
 
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EXHIBITIONS / SOLO SHOWS

1975

Peintures, Galerie Fred Lanzenberg, Bruxelles, Belgique [catalogue]

1976

Sabine Monirys – peintures, La Galerie du Rhinocéros, Paris [catalogue]

1979

Un temps de chien, Galerie Krief-Raymond, Paris [catalogue]

1983

Peintures, Galerie J. et J. Donguy, Paris

1988

Petits formats, Librairie – Galerie Un moment en plus, Paris

1991

Peinture, Galerie Hérold, Bruxelles, Belgique

1992

Ondes de pierre, crypte de l’église de l’Assomption, Rosnay-L’Hôpital, France [catalogue]

1994

Galerie Nishida, Nara, Japon

1999

Le regard intérieur – photographies, Galerie J. et J. Donguy, Paris

Musée d’art moderne de la ville, Paris ; Neue galerie, Sammlung Ludwig, Aix-la-Chapelle, Allemagne [catalogue]

2000

Frissons (Sculptures)– Les âmes barbelées, Centre culturel – Centre de Créations pour l’Enfance, Tinqueux-Reims, France [catalogue-livre]

2001

Le regard intérieur – photographies,

2006

Dessins, Galerie-Cinéma Accatone, Paris

2024

 Monsieur il faut froid ici, Galerie Kaléidoscope,Paris

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EXHIBITIONS / GROUP SHOWS

1961

Noël naïf, Galerie de l’Institut, Paris

1964

8 – Sept peintres et un sculpteur naïfs (Emerik Fejes, Henri Lauga, Jano Knjazovic, Simon Schwartzenberg, Matija Skurjeni, Petar Smajic, Sabine, Ivan Rabuzin), Galerie Mona Lisa, Paris [catalogue]

1975

Espaces intuitifs, Maison pour tous, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France [catalogue]

1 er Salon de la critique, Esplanade de La Défense, France

1976

Daily Bul and C°, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France ; Studio du Passage, Bruxelles, Belgique ; A.R.C.,

Six hommes – Six femmes, présentés par Gérard Fromanger, Galerie Jean Larcade, Paris [catalogue]

18 e Salon Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Grand Palais, Paris [catalogue]

XIV e Biennale internationale de São Paulo, Bernard Lassus, Martin Barre, Sabine Monirys, Pavillon Armando Arruda Pereira – Ibirapuera, Brésil (Commissariat France Gilles Plazy) [catalogue]

6 e année travaux sur papier objets, Centre culturel municipal, Villeparisis, France [catalogue]

Galerie Jean Briance, Paris

Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris

1978

XXIII e Salon de Montrouge « G. Braque », Montrouge, France [catalogue]

Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Grand Palais, Paris [catalogue]

Wozu ? – Un livre, une exposition, Galerie Nina Dausset, Paris [catalogue, livre]

Galerie Jean Briance, Paris

1979

24 e Salon de Montrouge « Gustave Moreau », Montrouge, 1979 [catalogue]

1980

Ateliers Aujourd’hui – Œuvres contemporaines des collections nationales – Accrochage IV, Galerie contemporaine, Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris [catalogue]

Kijno – Margerie – Monirys – Yeru, Pavillon français, Biennale de Venise, Italie [catalogue]

105 1981

Déserts – Peintures et photographies, La Chartreuse, Villeneuve-Lez-Avignon, France [catalogue]

Galerie l’Autre Musée, Bruxelles

1982

Tendances de la peinture figurative contemporaine, Forum des Cholettes, Sarcelles ; Maison des jeunes et de la culture Les Hauts de Belleville, Paris (janvier-février) ; Tendances de la peinture figurative contemporaine Centre culturel Pierre Bayle, Besançon, France ; Musée de Belfort, France [catalogue]

Mouvements dans l’art européen contemporain, Pavillon d’Europe – Galerie de Séoul, Séoul, Corée [catalogue]

1984

Figure-Figures – rencontres Art-Public gare de Paris-Est, Gare SNCF de Paris-Est, Paris [catalogue]

1985

XXX e Salon de Montrouge « Raoul Dufy », Montrouge, France [catalogue]

Daily-Bul 1955/1985, 30 années d’éditions et d’activités, Château de la Roche-Jagu, Ploëzal, France [catalogue]

26 e Salon Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées, Paris [catalogue]

1988

Third Annual International Exhibition of Miniature Art, Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, Canada [catalogue]

Galerie Nishida, Nara, Japon

1989

Galerie Nishida, Nara, Japon

1991

46 e Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris [catalogue]

Feuilles, Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou-MNAM, Paris ; Centre d’art contemporain,

Île de Vassivière, Vassivière-enLimousin, France

1992

Ondes de pierre, Église Saint-Didier, Asfeld ; Église de l’Assomption, Rosnay-L’Hôpital ; Château du Grand Jardin, Joinville ; Église Saint-André, Marfaux ; Frac Champagne-Ardenne

1993

Galerie Nishida, Nara, Japon

Lithographies, Galerie Area, Paris

1994

Qu’est-ce que j’ai fabriqué ? Qu’est-ce que je n’ai pas fabriqué !, Galerie J.

et J. Donguy, Paris

1995

Saga, Galerie Le Petit jaunais, Parc des expositions de la Porte de Versailles, Paris [catalogue]

Un mot pour le dire, sur une proposition de Pierre Tilman, Galerie Satellite, Paris

1996

L’autre côté du Miroir, Hôtel du département, Nantes, France

1997

Totems et Gris-gris, Maison de la Jeunesse et de la Culture Fernand Léger, Corbeil-Essonnes, France

Petite galerie, École des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France

1998

Ein Wortland, Kulturinitiative Stift Griffen, Klagenfurt, Autriche [catalogue]

1999

Le Regardement, sur une idée de Sabine Monirys (avec Mark Brusse, Jean Dupuy, Jacques Monory, Antonio Saura, Adriena Simotova, Roland Topor), Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun, France [catalogue]

2000

Ah! La vache, Le Daily-Bul, Havelange, Belgique

2001

Cruci-fictions, Galerie-Cinéma Accatone, Paris

Attack, Galerie Magnifikart, Brooklyn, Etats-Unis

La Cité des Femmes, Galerie-Cinéma Accatone, Paris

2002

Dessins, La Halle Saint-Pierre, Paris [livre] « En vain l’azur »]

2003

Extases, Galerie-Cinéma Accatone, Paris

Histoire naturelle, 7 e salon d’art contemporain, Museum national d’Histoire naturelle, Galerie botanique du Jardin des Plantes, Paris [catalogue]

2005

Carnets de voyages, Galerie-Cinéma Accatone, Paris

2012

Escargots à gogo – Gastéropodes en mots et en images, Centre Daily-Bul & C°, La Louvière, Belgique [catalogue]

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PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Centre National des Arts Plastiques

Fonds d’art contemporain – Paris collections

Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris

Musée d’Annonay

Musée de Grenoble

Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg