Thomas Fougeirol
15 Nov 2008 - 10 Jan 2009
THOMAS FOUGEIROL
"THE EMMAUS BRIDE"
Praz-Delavallade is pleased to announce its first solo show devoted to the French artist Thomas Fougeirol, who livesand works both in New York and Paris.
Thomas Fougeirol’s practice is characterized by an exploration of notions of absence and disappearance through themediums of painting, drawing and photography. In his previous works, Fougeirol often replaced the human body withobjects and detritus signifying a human presence, relying on the subtle implication of the body rather than its physicalreality. These traces and imprints of human existence float in emptiness and border on abstraction.Through this quest to capture and represent disappearance and effacement the artist is in fact questioning the act ofpainting.
The series “THE EMMAüS BRIDE”, where Fougeirol introduces the pictorial technique of imprinting materials onto the surface of the canvas, marks a shift in his practice. Using curtains and sheets bought in Emmaus (a thrift store resellingdonated goods for charity purposes) to create an impression on the canvas, he creates mysterious images reminiscentof early nineteenth-century photograms. The tactical composition of negative and positive space is central to hismethod of constructing images. Between apparition and dissolution, the painting is waiting to be revealed.
The use of the imprint is linked to primitive painterly techniques of emphasizing the materiality of the paint and thephysical engagement of the painter. But here, Fougeirol is distancing himself from his work by pressing the fabricbetween himself and the canvas. However, the second-hand sheet loaded with its own history, acting as a reliquary ofmemories of bygone people and places, and it’s this emotional content wich contributes to the elaboration of the work.
In addition to the technique of imprinting, Fougeirol investigates painterly conventions through a variety of strategies ofappropriation, including the use of all-over pattern and the process of layering and covering. In this series, he begins toconsider the various possibilities of utilizing all-over pattern repetition to construct a painting. Banal or kitschy textiledesigns take the place of the traditional subject in the center of the canvas. He also introduces arbitrariness to theconstruction of the work by using the imprinting technique, which is in itself a highly random and unpredictable process.Fougeirol’s method of covering is twofold: it is evident both in the overprinting and layering of dense patterns, but alsoin his allusion to obscuring or curtaining the convention of the painting as a “window”.
His use of silver paint creates a mirror effect that plays with light and the movement of the viewer, emphasizing thework’s active physical engagement with the spectator.
In this series of “Curtain Crash” paintings, Fougeirol allows foreign elements to contaminate his paintings. He enlargesthe relationship between the painter and his painting, between the artist and his subject. For Fougeirol, the fundamentalquestion is no longer what to paint, but how to paint. The process of painting and the physical properties of the paintbecome most important, while traditional elements of color, subject, composition and brushstroke are put aside.Fougeirol focuses his work on the act of painting, more than on the images he produces.
"THE EMMAUS BRIDE"
Praz-Delavallade is pleased to announce its first solo show devoted to the French artist Thomas Fougeirol, who livesand works both in New York and Paris.
Thomas Fougeirol’s practice is characterized by an exploration of notions of absence and disappearance through themediums of painting, drawing and photography. In his previous works, Fougeirol often replaced the human body withobjects and detritus signifying a human presence, relying on the subtle implication of the body rather than its physicalreality. These traces and imprints of human existence float in emptiness and border on abstraction.Through this quest to capture and represent disappearance and effacement the artist is in fact questioning the act ofpainting.
The series “THE EMMAüS BRIDE”, where Fougeirol introduces the pictorial technique of imprinting materials onto the surface of the canvas, marks a shift in his practice. Using curtains and sheets bought in Emmaus (a thrift store resellingdonated goods for charity purposes) to create an impression on the canvas, he creates mysterious images reminiscentof early nineteenth-century photograms. The tactical composition of negative and positive space is central to hismethod of constructing images. Between apparition and dissolution, the painting is waiting to be revealed.
The use of the imprint is linked to primitive painterly techniques of emphasizing the materiality of the paint and thephysical engagement of the painter. But here, Fougeirol is distancing himself from his work by pressing the fabricbetween himself and the canvas. However, the second-hand sheet loaded with its own history, acting as a reliquary ofmemories of bygone people and places, and it’s this emotional content wich contributes to the elaboration of the work.
In addition to the technique of imprinting, Fougeirol investigates painterly conventions through a variety of strategies ofappropriation, including the use of all-over pattern and the process of layering and covering. In this series, he begins toconsider the various possibilities of utilizing all-over pattern repetition to construct a painting. Banal or kitschy textiledesigns take the place of the traditional subject in the center of the canvas. He also introduces arbitrariness to theconstruction of the work by using the imprinting technique, which is in itself a highly random and unpredictable process.Fougeirol’s method of covering is twofold: it is evident both in the overprinting and layering of dense patterns, but alsoin his allusion to obscuring or curtaining the convention of the painting as a “window”.
His use of silver paint creates a mirror effect that plays with light and the movement of the viewer, emphasizing thework’s active physical engagement with the spectator.
In this series of “Curtain Crash” paintings, Fougeirol allows foreign elements to contaminate his paintings. He enlargesthe relationship between the painter and his painting, between the artist and his subject. For Fougeirol, the fundamentalquestion is no longer what to paint, but how to paint. The process of painting and the physical properties of the paintbecome most important, while traditional elements of color, subject, composition and brushstroke are put aside.Fougeirol focuses his work on the act of painting, more than on the images he produces.