Martin Gendre

Martin Gendre, Paris, Éditions Lord Byron, 2026

1st edition
Edition of 470 numbered copies from 1 to 470
Hardcover, 23 x 27.5 cm, 240 pages
Bilingual edition: French, English
Translation by John Barrett and Cassius Benham
ISBN: 978-2-488446-27-3

The book Martin Gendre is the first monograph dedicated to the French artist, tracing twenty-five years of pictorial practice. The publication was released on the occasion of his retrospective at the Bouvet Ladubay Centre for Contemporary Art in Saumur. It includes an essay by Christophe Tannert, an interview with Richard Leydier, and texts by Marinette Lévy and Amélie Pironneau.

“In the works of this accomplished painter, we become witnesses to human situations which, beyond their mere representation, allow us to experience in time and space something fundamental, namely the existential condition underpinning both private modes 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, who graduated in 2001 from the École des Beaux-Arts in Angers. He currently lives and works in Paris.

Richard Leydier is an exhibition curator, art critic, and former editor-in-chief of Art Press magazine. In this capacity, he has authored numerous monographs dedicated 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. After studying literature, she pursued a career in screenwriting, collaborating on works for cinema, television, and live performance. She is the former administrator of the Théâtre des Mathurins in Paris.

Amélie Pironneau holds a PhD in art history and is an art critic. She notably published a study at éditions bookstorming 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 of Berlin, graduating with a Magister Artium in 1981. His fields of expertise include painting, photography, and video art. He co-founded the Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam in 1994, serving as its vice-president from 2003 onwards. In the 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 artist residency comprising studios and exhibition spaces. Since 1981, he has contributed to the curatorship and editorial work of numerous catalogues for exhibitions in the visual arts.