Between BLACK and WHITE
Between Black and White
March 9 - April 16, 2016
(Wednesday to Saturday 2.30-7.30 pm)
Christophe BISKUP - Michèle IZNARDO - Serge SAUNIÈRE
- Sylvie TESTAMARCK, drawings and paintings:
sculptures: Jean-Patrice OULMONT
"A black, white E..." Vowels", the famous sonnet by Arthur Rimbaud, opens on a double contrast. The ‘A’ sound, expresses for the poet the fullness of the voice associated with the black colour, seen as a summary of all the colours (obviously a poetic vision, free of any scientific consideration). In opposition to that , the ‘E’ sound is white, often silent. It is the fluid element of the speech, its breath, its silence. This poetic analogy corresponds perfectly to the artists’ works in black and white. The ‘Black and White’ was a major trend in painting in the 50’ and the 60’s. Among the best known, let us quote some names like Soulages, Marfaing, Hartung, Kline, Prassinos, Fred Deux... The artists we present today, Christophe BISKUP, Michelle IZNARDO, Serge SAUNIÈRE, Sylvie TESTAMARCK, are pursuing in this direction, each of them adding the singularity of their universe. Anything is possible with the paper's white and the black of the ink, the charcoals or the pencils. The tension between the black and white, these two complementary poles, is essential. In between the darkest black and the brightest white all the contrasts are told between the Full and the Empty. Black and White, enhanced by each other, are opposed in an absolute contrast, but once they are mixed, they join in the infinity of all greys.
"The black speaks, the grey is whispering" writes Louis Pons and one could add " while the white is listening." Out of this promiscuity of full and empty, a pictorial dialogue is born, out of which any digression of the colour is excluded. The black-and-white concentrates the soul. Colours render things more complex while the black gradations simplify our perception without impoverishing it. The works of Jean-Patrice OULMONT, the sculptor of our exhibition, are deploying the tension between these contrasts in the three-dimensional space, between the density and the lightness, the emptiness and the fullness, the simplicity and the refinement.
Michèle IZNARDO
Michèle IZNARDO Lieux VII, mixed technic on paper 100x100cm
Starting from the shade to find the form and not the contrary, because shade impregnates the form, it gives back its quality, its presence, writes Michele Iznardo in an artist note. From the original black emerges the drawing. The artwork is born from the shade and, by contrast with white, seizes all the pictorial space. Pencil, charcoal, black chalk, collage, erasing, are inventing inner landscapes. The white is the breath, the black is the light.
Michèle Iznardo Lieux II mixed technic on paper 200x100cm
Christophe BISKUP
Christophe BISKUP without title charcoal on paper 25x80cm 2015
Once again, Christophe Biskup's recent works explore the nocturnal depths. But beyond the night and far beyond the black, the charcoal and the black chalk now penetrate the paper as if to reach the quintessence of absence. Landscapes emerge in the moonlight, like the suspended hope. The depths of the night vibrate under some strokes of light. The dawn is yet to come.
Christophe BISKUP without title charcoal on paper 63x43cm 2015
Serge SAUNIÈRE
A long stay in Japan where he practised calligraphy with great masters, has deeply influenced his work. The concentration and precision of gesture, essential elements of the Japanese tradition (Let's think of the martial arts...) fed his thought and work. Between the black of the ink and the white of the paper, the fluidity of water and the energy of brush produce a subtle harmony, verging to imbalance. On the contrary, the paintings, acrylic on canvas, slowly developed, one layer of transparencies upon another, paradoxically give an impression of spontaneity.
The tumult and vanities of the world disappear when facing the work of Serge Saunière. His paintings and inks speak about the silence, the wind, the light and the shade. They invite us to meditation.
Serge SAUNIÈRE Without title Acrylic on canvas 130x130cm 2013
Sylvie TESTAMARCK
When she returns from Venezuela (1992), Sylvie Testamarck forsakes sculpture t
o devote herself exclusively to drawing. Often large size, her works mix techniques, pencils, inks, pastels. Sometimes she hurts the paper's flesh in its sumptuous thickness. She hollows vividly shadow values of greys and blacks to make the immaculate white appear in a form of accents of light extracted from the paper's depth. For her, drawing is a ritual, a sacrificial act perhaps, and yet certainly totemic,. Archaeologist of her memory, she excavates and searches details of her universe that blossoms as a gap between all kingdoms. Pursuing a daydream where symbolism becomes reality, her androgynous forms remain between the curves and the fault lines, scratches, hurts and caresses, always between the organic and the vegetative state. Sylvie Testamarck remains in the absolute ambiguity of a world in which reason is shipwrecked. She confronts us with the chaos of our drives.
Sylvie TESTAMARCK Louise et les oiseaux mixed technic on paper 120x63cm
Sylvie TESTAMARCK Totem mixed technic on paper 70x66,5cm
Jean-Patrice OULMONT
Jean-Patrice OULMONT Miroir d'automne Elm h=66cm
Jean-Patrice Oulmont's sculptures and their delicate simplicity resonate with the sobriety of "Black and White". The wood raw material is smooth or rough and, sill it has kept the silent vitality of the tree from which it sprang. This vegetal brother, by slow maturation and after its sublimation by the gaze of the artist, becomes a sculpture. "The sculpture does not exist until it is not brought to completion. This result can be expressed as a relationship between the strength of the work's inner architecture and the lightness of the sensation expressed with a high sensitivity " wrote J. P Oulmont. We find the back here, as between the black and white, the same tension between outside and inside, the full and the empty. The spirit enters into deep communion with the matter.
Biographies
Christophe BISKUP
Born in 1960 in Poland, he lives and works in Paris since 2002. His works are permanently displayed at Galerie ART aujourd'hui since 2013.
Painter, draughtsman, for several years he refocused on the drawing to explore all the means of expression given by the charcoal on paper that he prepares before starting drawing.
If one were to define its creation by a single word, it would be “the touching”. He dismisses the superfluous, limiting his strokes, leaving only the essential in order to hear the penetrating music of silence.
Recent exhibitions: Le Dessin ou la probité de l'art: September / November 2014 Galerie ART aujourd'hui,"La part de l'ombre" February / March 2015 Galerie ART aujourd'hui, Paris.
Michèle IZNARDO
A graduate of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1984, She resided at the Casa de Velázquez, Madrid.
Lives and works in Boulogne-Billancourt, participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions: at the Propriété Caillebotte (91 Yerres) and lately the Jonas gallery in Neuchatel, Switzerland; and several international fairs: Artfair Berliner Liste in Berlin, Strasbourg, St-art 2012 and Lille Artfair.
Public collections: Fond of Contemporary Art of the City of Paris. Property Caillebotte, Museum of Fine Arts Valdepeñas and Casa de Velázquez in Spain.
Recent exhibitions 2014: Licht und Schatten, Galerie Bagnato, Konstanz, Germany - Contemporary Art Fair ART UP LILLE - OLink Gallery The Hague, Netherlands - Le Dessin ou la probité de l'art, galerie ART aujourd'hui, Paris. 2015: Between sea and sky, Gallery Estelle Lebas, Dunkirk. 2016: Paper support, Galerie Brigitte Ruffin, La Rochelle.
Serge SAUNIÈRE
Serge Saunière was born in 1947, lives and works in Paris. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The scholarship he gets in 1980 for a study tour in Japan, will determine the direction he gives to his painting and his life. He will remain in his country of choice until 1988. He taught at the Versailles School of Architecture since 1999 and has exhibited many times in Japan.
Numerous exhibitions in Spain and France in galleries including: Mac Paris. Galerie ART aujourd'hui: Japan, so far, so close, December 2014.
Jean-Patrice OULMONT
Main exhibitions:
International Art Fairs and Salons in France: Art-Metz, Réalités Nouvelles, Paris, European Meetings of sculpture in Montauban, Queille festival in Mirepoix.
Abroad : Linéart in Ghent, Belgium, Hannah Peschar GB, Affordable Art Fair London, Royal College of Art London, Brussels Sculpturalasne, Out of Nature GB, Abstractions Abstraction-Toulouse.
Realization of a monumental sculpture (command) in Seoul.
Solo exhibitions: Galerie Protée, Paris, Paris Galerie Flichy, Bogena Gallery Saint-Paul de Vence, La Tannerie Houdan, Dondolando Arte Parma, Galerie L'Hirondelle Carla-Bayle …
Sylvie TESTAMARCK
Sylvie TESTAMARCK was born in 1958 in Paris. Graduated in 1984 from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, sculpture section.
Price of the Fondation de France
She has lived in Venezuela from 1985 to 1990. On her return to France, she abandoned sculpture to devote herself exclusively to drawing.
Participates in fairs and Salons: Réalités Nouvelles, Mac 2000 from 1997 to 2007.
Solo exhibitions: - Paris: Galerie des Beaux-Arts - Cloister Billettes - Mourenx: Contemporary Art Gallery - Bar- Le- Duc: Espace Saint-Louis.
She teaches History of art at the Popular University Averroes (93 Bondy).
exhibition's images (images Ph.Rillon) - click on to enlarge
