Martin Gendre

Martin Gendre, Paris, Éditions Lord Byron, 2026

First edition
Edition of 30 numbered copies from I to XXX, each accompanied by an original work by the artist
Hardcover, 23 x 27.5 cm, 240 pages
Bilingual edition: French / English
Translation by John Barrett and Cassius Benham
ISBN: 978-2-488446-26-6

Martin Gendre is the first monograph devoted to the French artist, tracing twenty-five years of his painterly practice. The publication was released on the occasion of his retrospective at the Centre d’art contemporain Bouvet Ladubay in Saumur. It includes an essay by Christoph Tannert, an interview with Richard Leydier, and texts by Marinette Lévy and Amélie Pironneau.

“In the works of this gifted painter, we become witnesses to human situations which, beyond their mere representation, allow us to experience through time and space something fundamental: the existentiality that underlies both private ways of life and public practices.” (Excerpt from the text by Christoph Tannert)

Born in 1976, Martin Gendre is a French painter and draughtsman from Saumur. He graduated in 2001 from the École des Beaux-Arts in Angers. He currently lives and works in Paris.

Richard Leydier is a curator, art critic, and former editor-in-chief of the journal Art Press. In this capacity, he has authored numerous monographs devoted to artists as diverse as David Altmejd, Bernhard Martin, Georg Baselitz, Vanessa Beecroft, and Ernesto Neto. He is also the author of several books on Ronan Barrot, Marc Desgrandchamps, Jean Messagier, Jonathan Meese, and François Rouan, among many others.

Marinette Lévy is a novelist and screenwriter. Following literary studies, she embarked upon a career in screenwriting, co-authoring works for cinema, television, and the performing arts alike. She formerly served as administrator of the Théâtre des Mathurins in Paris.

Amélie Pironneau holds a doctorate in art history and is an art critic. She notably published, with Éditions bookstorming, a volume entitled “The Crisis of Painting in France, 1968–2000”.

Christoph Tannert is a German art critic and exhibition curator. Born in Leipzig in 1955, he lives and works in Berlin. He studied art history and archaeology at Humboldt University in Berlin, graduating with a Magister Artium in 1981. His fields of expertise notably include painting, photography, and video art. In 1994, he co-founded the Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam, of which he became vice-president in 2003. That same year, he was appointed to the board of the Berlin Photography Festival. Since 2000, he has directed Künstlerhaus Bethanien, an international cultural centre and artists’ residency comprising studios and exhibition spaces. Since 1981, he has contributed to the curatorship and catalogue editing of numerous exhibitions dedicated to the visual arts.