Biography
Bertrand Dorny was born in Paris on July 2, 1931 and died on June 19, 2015; he is a French painter, collagist, printmaker and graphic designer.
Bertrand Dorny, was mainly a painter in his early days, very curious about all the different creative techniques and art media, he was initiated into engraving. This technique becomes the preferred means of his expression and subsequently, the basis of his future research and experimentations. The engraved work of Dorny includes to this day about 650 plates.
Bertrand Dorny worked at the studio of André Lhote and Johnny Friedlaender. He built his work in deriving accepted techniques such as engraving, collage or paper folding to achieve a personal style.
While experimenting with engraving and print techniques, Dorny is particularly attracted to poor materials: floated wood, cardboard, used or rejected papers, etc., He develops collages, an art form which he is one of the most prolific representatives. He made his collages from folded papers, “topomorphoses” (wood-reliefs), and very large floating wood panels assembled. His collages inspired Bernard Noël, Le Roman de papier, an art book published by Ubacs in 1989.
He develops more artists’ books, for many poets, including Charles Juliet, lent their words in his works.
He also worked on the second issue of the collection Osmosis (art books, limited edition), founded in 1979 by Daniel Lacotte collection that combined the original work of a painter than a poet.
He produces his prints from an assemblage of separate plaques of metal giving each its own texture and colour before printing. The cut-out forms are pushed into the softened paper to different depths, creating the low-relief surfaces special to Dorny.
A first catalog raisonné of his engraved work from 1967 to 1980 was published in 1981 by Éditions Sources, in Paris, with a presentation text by Bernard Gheerbrant.
After being professor of drawing at the Academy of the Grande Chaumière, Dorny taught engraving at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1975 to 1979. He was a member of the French Society of Painters and Etchers and societary of the Jeune Gravure Contemporaine (The Young Contemporary Engraving.)
After retiring from his engraving activity in 1991, he continued his collages, by thematic series titled: Vitrines, Le Musée manipulé and Architectures. (“Vitrines”, “The Museum Manipulated “, “Architectures”).
His works are represented in museums around the world and in many private European and American collections.
Sources: Wikipedia, Artist web site and personal additions by Yoannick Ysebaert, curator YLA.
Bibliography: Robert Herbert, Dorny, vingt ans de gravure, 1987
Marc Le Bot, « Pour Bertrand Dorny », Préface, catalogue de la Galerie de Luxembourg, Grand-duché, SAGA, Paris, 1992
Marie-Cécile Meissner, « Dorny gravure, itinéraire », Bertrand Dorny, l’homme papier BnF, 2003