Curated by Marie de Brugerolle

Transparent, reflective, and opaque all at once, the art of Larry Bell has always flirted with contradiction. During the 1960s Bell became known for his vacuum-coated glass cubes mounted on pedestals. Initially aligned with the so-called finish-fetish aesthetic of Los Angeles’s Ferus Gallery, he was equally associated with East Coast Minimalism, yet his works, which brilliantly undermine their objectness, subvert Minimalism’s literalist aims. (Even Michael Fried admired Bell’s “gorgeous baubles.”) Known primarily for these sculptures and for his walls of glass, Bell has also produced vapor-coated paper and mixed-media works, including his “De Lux” furniture. The Nîmes exhibition, comprising some three hundred pieces made between 1959 and the present, promises a broader view of the artist’s multifarious activities than we have heretofore seen.

— James Meyer