14 février 1990

Unfolding over a total length of 16.125 meters, 14 février 1990 is Michel Parmentier’s largest composition.It consists of thirty-six gray charcoal strips, arranged at regular intervals in a progressive sequence from one to eight. It is part of a cycle of works, produced by the artist between 1989 and 1991, that explores the medium of tracing paper

The quest for formal austerity that animates his work contributes to anchoring it in almost complete silence, through which he affirms “to paint the fault, to scribble the lack,”1 without ever resigning himself to it. Parmentier, whose practice is based on a rejection of gesture and narrative, refuses any form of symbolism outside the pictorial space, his drawings are content to be drawings.

The Pinault Collection first showed this work in 2023 at the Punta della Dogana  in Venice, as part of the exhibition Icones.