Introduced to the gallery by François Mathey and his friends the collectors Boulois, the talented painter, drawer and engraver Dado was exhibited four times between 1971 and 1975. His phantasmagorical dramaturgy draws its inspiration from a sort of redemption, through painting or drawing, of adolescent memories of tragedies and human cruelties that occured in his native Montenegro.

In 2024, the Galerie presented a new exhibition of works by DADO (1933-2010), Portrait en fragments, designed to echo two publications in 2023 that shed new and singular light on the artist: Portrait en fragments (November 2023, published by L’Atelier contemporain. Interview by Christian Derouet, 1981-1988. Edited and presented by Amarante Szidon) invites us to a new exploration of the abundant universe of Montenegrin artist Dado (1933-2010). Organized around essential themes for apprehending one of the most singular figures in the art of the second half of the 20th century, the book was conceived and annotated by his daughter, Amarante Szidon, on the basis of mostly unpublished recordings made in 1981 and 1988 by Christian Derouet, curator of the exhibition “Dado. L’exaspération du trait” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou (November 19, 1981-January 18, 1982).

Dado, Le Temps d’Hérouval (Published November 2023 by L’Atelier contemporain. Photographs by Domingo Djuric. Preface by Amarante Szidon. Comments by Germain Viatte). Son of the artist Hessie (1933-2017) and Domingo Ramírez- Arce (1933-1978), Domingo Djuric (1961-2022) was born in New York. Adopted by Dado in 1962, he arrived in France with his mother and brother on July 14 of the same year. In the 1980s, now based in Paris, he began documenting Dado’s studio and the world of Hérouval.
Among this selection of emblematic works are paintings and drawings: the Pali-Kao Triptych, the Narwhal Triptych, the Bowery Triptych, Mayfair House, the Atlas of Dermatology…, accompanied by some photos of Dado’s studio and the world of Hérouval by his son Domingo Djuric.

Dado is presented on the gallery’s stand at Art Paris 2025 at the Grand Palais, and selected in the focus IMMORTAL. A FOCUS ON FIGURATIVE PAINTING IN FRANCE, by Amélie Adamo and Numa Hambursin. A signature from the monograph Dado: The Phenomenon of Life Through Painting, on Friday April 4 at 5.30pm on our stand at Art Paris, in the presence of Amarante Szidon.

Since the artist’s death, a first retrospective of paintings, DADO: Histoire naturelle, 1953-2000, has been dedicated to him at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade from December 21, 2024 to March 2, 2025 (Author: Amarante Szidon). A new monograph by the artist, Dado: The Phenomenon of Life Through Painting, is published on this occasion by Amarante Szidon.

Portrait en fragments

Portrait en fragments is an invitation to a new exploration of the abundant universe of Montenegrin artist Dado (1933-2010). Organized around essential themes for understanding one of the most singular figures in the art of the second half of the 20th century, the book was conceived and annotated by his daughter, Amarante Szidon, based on recordings, most of them previously unpublished, made in 1981 and 1988 by Christian Derouet, curator of the exhibition “Dado. L’exaspération du trait” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou (November 19, 1981-January 18, 1982).

Your painting is power. A terror where matter is man. There’s a relationship that belongs to you alone, between the material-forms or man-animal, the invertebrate, and the backgrounds-colors that give powers of transparency or reflection.

Letter from Gilles Deleuze to Dado, December 26, 1994

Dado, Le Temps d’Hérouval

Published November 2023, by L’Atelier contemporain. Photographs by Domingo Djuric. Preface by Amarante Szidon. Comments by Germain Viatte.

Son of the artist Hessie (1933-2017) and Domingo Ramírez- Arce (1933-1978), Domingo Djuric (1961-2022) was born in New York. Adopted by Dado in 1962, he arrived in France with his mother and brother on July 14 of the same year. By the 1980s, now based in Paris, he had begun documenting Dado’s studio and the world of Hérouval.

Here was a place where everything was alive, even disaster and death. Despite its extreme deprivation, it seemed enchanting. Indeed, it enchanted those who lived there, a couple of meticulous, visionary artists, Dado and Hessie, their children, their friends, the poultry, the cats and all those animals said to be wild around the pond. Through the son’s eyes, we enter the living heart of an intimate work, moving and beautiful, just and disturbing.

Germain Viatte

www.dado.fr

exhibitions at the gallery

• Portrait en fragments
1 to 10 February, 2024

• Présences
March 7 to July 13, 2017

• Mémoire épidermique
May 12 to June 18, 2016

• Dialogue VII
June 30 to July 23, 2016

• About Painting, from the 40s until today
February 2nd to April 30, 2016

• FIAC 2015
October 22 to 25, 2015

• Matter and Memory. The Patriarch’s Realm.
November 19, 2013 to January 25, 2014

• Hommage à Miodrag Djuric Dado
March 24 to May 14, 2011

• Sous la mémoire
April 24 to June 16, 2003

• Pour un jubilé 1947-1997
FIAC 1997 − September 30 to October 6, 1997
and at the gallery – October 7 to December 6, 1997

• 35 etchings, 1971-1975
May 14 to June 14, 1975

• Drawings and collages
June 14 to July 13, 1974

• Recent paintings and etchings
September 18 to October 27, 1973

• Solo exhibition
March 30 to May 8, 1971