At the end of 2014, I learned that Patti Smith would undertake a world tour in the fall of 2015, to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of her legendary album Horses release, published in October 1975.

I understood right away that it was a unique opportunity to implement what I had dreamed of for so long : to try and give my own pictorial vision of the compositions of the Horses album -which had marked me in an indelible way-, in order to exhibit them in October 2015 on the Horses album's anniversary date of release, in tribute to the talent and the innovative audacity shown by Patti Smith with the creation of landmark work the impact and the importance of which have grown stronger over time. And if Patti Smith did invent Horses, one could also say that Horses invented Patti Smith, as she was brutally propelled to the fore with a unique tone, a style, a writing, a voice, a posture and aesthetics that influenced so many artists in the decades following the record’s output. The author's aura and that of her masterwork have never waned since.

But time was lacking for undertaking such an adventure. In less than nine months, how does one manage to conceive and produce such a substantial set of paintings, most of which must mandatorily be large formats (in my paintings’ case, their favourite sizing)? And in parallel to the artistic work, how could the necessary time be found to organize such an exhibition? That is to say first and foremost to obtain the Record Company’s necessary authorizations and those from Horses disc’s rights holders. At the same occasion, time must be found for identifying a location likely to host large-scale canvases, and then for obtaining the approached owners and decision-makers’ agreement. And in parallel, one must devote to the search for partners and sponsors, and to all the exhibition’s logistical aspects and publicity. And before all things, one must seek and find the funding that such an event demands. Knowing that none of those things can be improvised at the last moment.