Artcurial Motorcars invites you to discover the novel La vitesse immobile selon Erró by Hervé Poulain
 

On 1 July, Artcurial Motorcars is organising the signing of Hervé Poulain's new book on the Le Mans Classic circuit, which was published in bookshops on 4 May. Entitled La vitesse immobile selon Erró, and published in the collection Le Roman d'un chef-d'œuvre by Ateliers Henry Dougier, the book examines the iconic Carscape by the cult Icelandic painter Erró, a huge canvas saturated with hundreds of cars delicately placed one on top of the other, identifiable, new and empty. 

A non-fiction novel
A divisional commissioner working for the Office for the Prevention of Fraud tracks down the famous Carscape. The investigation leads him to question art players, the collector who commissioned the work, experts, an auctioneer and the artist himself, Erró (born 1932). In this way, the plot, right up to its unexpected conclusion, doubles as an introduction to Pop Art, with the most inspiring and most divisive object, the car, around which all urban folklore and social behaviour is organised, and whose representation sheds as much light on our civilisation as cave drawings did on that of our distant ancestors.

In this non-fictional novel, according to his own definition, Hervé Poulain mixes fiction with contemporary art history and autobiography.

The Carscape reveals itself as an almost archaeological metaphor for consumer society and, alongside its acceptance, as a synthesis of the first warnings of the great artists of the sixties against the addiction to material goods that the new abundance insidiously invites. 

Hervé Poulain, The accelerated man
Hervé Poulain is the Honorary Chairman of Artcurial, the founding Chairman of SYMEV and the founding Chairman of the CNMA (Conseil National du Marché de l'Art).

An emblematic figure in the art world, he has been orchestrating auctions of all specialities with brilliance and spirit since 1969. In the particular field of the automobile, he has contributed significantly to the elevation of its status to the rank of Fine Art.

It was by combining his two passions, contemporary art and speed, that he invented the concept of Art Cars, during his eleven participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, by entrusting the decoration of the cars he drove to illustrious artists such as Calder, Stella, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Arman, César or Wolinski.

As early as 1974, he initiated sales of collector cars and Automobilia in France. In 2010, anxious to perpetuate this speciality, he entrusted its management to Matthieu Lamoure and Pierre Novikoff, his spiritual sons within Artcurial Motorcars.

He is the accelerated man, according to the title of a book dedicated to him in 2021, which quoted the New York Herald Tribune's consideration: "One would look, in vain, for an American who could be compared to Hervé Poulain".

He is the author of six other art books: L’Art et l’Automobile (1973), Un Siècle de peinture française (1976), Une Collection d’Avance (1986), L’Art, la Femme et l’Automobile (1989), Mes Pop Cars (2006), Le marteau et son maître (2010).

Information
La vitesse immobile selon Erró by Hervé Poulain 
Publisher: Ateliers Henry Dougier 
Collection: Le roman d’un chef-d’œuvre 

Price: €12,90

Signature during the Le Mans Classic circuit 
Saturday 1 July 2023, from 6:30pm

Le Mans Classic
24 Hours Circuit 
72000 Le Mans

Contact
Artcurial Motorcars