Agnès Thurnauer

Designed by artist Agnès Thurnauer, the Matrice vase is a sculptural work in white stoneware, combining design, colour and a subtle tribute to Monet and the Water Lilies.

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About this collaboration

A dialogue between language, matter and light

Since the 2010s, Agnès Thurnauer has been finely exploring the plasticity of language, transforming the letters of the alphabet into real sculptures. With her Matrices, she has created an alphabet with volume: hollow, legible shapes that become language, sculpture and furniture.

The Matrices Chromatiques

For the musée de l'Orangerie, the artist has imagined a specific and immersive work: the Matrices Chromatiques (chromatic matrices). The twelve sculpted letters installed in various places in the museum make up the word "Chromatiques", chosen to echo Claude Monet's Water Lillies. Like "water lily-letters", their presence is colourful and poetic, a continuation of the light-infused aura of Monet's masterpiece in the museum's architecture itself.
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A new piece of art is also found at the heart of this collaboration: the Matrice vase. Designed from the mould of the letter O, this white enamelled stoneware vase is sculpture, a container, and play on shapes. It is made up of three curved sections, each pierced with a coloured niche - blue, pink, yellow - recalling the primary colours, the foundation of any painting and particularly present in Monet's work. Its round shape subtly echoes the iconic oval of the Water Lilies rooms.