Presentation

"Outsiders" aims to bring together one-off works, or independent ones in theme. However, some of these works escape that rule, finding themselves related by their subject and thus constituting a body of works. But in this case, the latter remains circumscribed and sometimes without endorsement in further achievements.

Such is the case of a set of medium formats, entitled Cartes à Jouer (Game of Cards), which dates from the early 1980s. Consequently, this series is contemporary with the body of research carried out around Joni Mitchell's œuvre, (1976-1989), and therefore bears some graphic resemblance to some of the latter work there (i.e. the Cactus Tree diptych). I have also selected for this "Outsiders" section a few portraits on paper out of the dozen that constitute their set. These works date from the early 1990s. That is to say, from the moment when I felt that my work was beginning to evolve towards painting, thanks to the ultimate research inspired by Joni Mitchell's art.
I have also included some sketches of the Berry landscapes, associated with paintings inspired by the loves of George Sand. The sketches are a series of works on paper produced outdoors in the Berry countryside, and the second series deals with two large-format studio paintings dedicated to the author of Mare au diable (The Devil's Pool), created for the 2009 exhibition Oscar, Stanley, Joni, Rickie Lee, George, Kate et autres Corps & Âmes hantant les Lieux du Monde.
Finally, I brought together a body of research dating from the early 1990s and inspired by Brazilian architecture - and more specifically by some Oscar Niemeyer’s creations that stand in Rio or Brasilia. These paintings constitute my first steps towards the work later devoted to the capital of Brazil, then to that staging the buildings that the architect bequeathed to us in the Paris Region of Île-de-France.
In the same dynamic, I included some research carried out in the early 2000s around Orly Airport South Wing, which anticipated the work that I dedicated to the airport as of 2008.
Included in this section is a canvas renamed Orly (Sud) - HAL - Hall 06 (previously captioned as Orly (Sud) - Vol 06, which was part of the first presentation of this series in 2012 by the Dubois Friedland Gallery in Brussels. I then withdrew it from the Orly (South) catalog, insofar as the location of the South Wing represented in this painting was not specific enough to the airport, since it evoked an architectural space that was certainly magnificent but which could belong to any other modern buildings dating from the turn of the 1950s/1960s. Like the other two "early" paintings inspired by Orly, it is nevertheless a work that I fully claim.

Most of the works gathered in this section are more or less related to the themes that generally interest me, i.e. architecture, cinema and music. However, it is noteworthy that concerning a large number of them, the frontal and explicit representation of male nudity that they display adds another dimension to these works’ imaginary settings, fueled by allegory and symbolism. This chapter gives these works the place that I feel they deserve.

Gallery