Title: Detail
Detail
This is what the Italian call a “particolare”, a pictural detail, not iconic, to use the words of daniel Arasse. It is a small piece of one of my large canvas featuring the Marne river. A fragment, an extract, a cut-out that represents nothing, that shows nothing, that describes nothing : just a small surface on which layers of colours intertwin. Why then show you this detail, what does it say to you about me, my work, painting in general ? It is first aknowledgment that painting is abstraction, even when it is figurative. This matter does not evoke anything from this point of view. Only the patches of colour speak for themselves. Nevertheless the alchemy will create from the distance the picture of a river on which are lying the shades of the trees. This detail is also the witness of my work, of my choices, of my intentions, embodied in the matter, the stroke, at the nearest point to my hand. It is finally the confession of freedom, not the one of the artist, but the one of the colours and the matter. Who could dare say that I did want this particular order of things, this combination of elements, this precious hasard... Beyond the structure of the painting, which is mine and that I can control, there is in this particolare the proof that something exceeds myself, the proof that there is somewhere an autonomous creation, a wide space of liberty. This detail shows me the irrationnal, the magic of art work. Is is me because I did it, it is beyond me because I won’t be able to do it again. This detail is a fragment of eternity.
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