BIO
My Story and my Inspiration
Childhood
At the age of 11, I met my two teachers, André Lauran and Véronique Véron, true ascetics of painting and co-founders of the Sanzism* movement. They were also pioneers in their interest in meditation, which they discovered in New York shortly after the end of World War II. Their approach to teaching drawing was steeped in Eastern philosophy. This education, which I received from a very young age, set a decisive course for my relationship with the craft of painting.
In Paris
I studied graphic arts for at the École de la Rue Madame first. I then deepened my knowledge of sculpture and architecture at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs. My thesis was a reexamination of how to depict space in two dimensions. After exploring all forms of art–two-dimensional, three-dimensional, and then the study of space–I was still unsatisfied; my curiosity led me to take a radical turn. I decided to observe the observer! Meditation seemed to be the most objective of all techniques at that time.
At the Hermitage
I began a six-year closed retreat in a Buddhist hermitage, guided by an accomplished spiritual master, Guendune Rinpoche. I ceased all forms of artistic expression during this period but deepened my understanding of the mind that perceives. Today, I realize just how beneficial this period of asceticism was for me; it transformed my relationship to the very act of creation. I resumed my work with greater certainty and more strength in my brushstrokes. Meditation has simplified the connection between my brush and my mind.
In Berlin
Without any intention of expressing anything in particular, I began to paint: filling the white surface of the canvas, letting my brush wander, searching to find. My first paintings depict scenes of torture and skeletons–subjects that catch me off guard, undoubtedly influenced by the history of the place where my studio is located: former Stasi interrogation cells in the former GDR. But through this work, I’ve rediscovered my fascination with colors and oil painting; I’m happy to see that those years of seclusion haven’t dampened my creative passion in the least.
A friend offered me access to a new studio in a more pleasant neighborhood. The room there is small and dark (no electricity, no water). Due to the lack of light, black-and-white work becomes the natural choice. I then sought a new approach to line work, using black screen-printing ink on bare paper as my medium. The goal is to start with the gesture itself. Generally, the brush that guides the line is the result of the mental; I take the opposite approach by freeing myself from it. Without control or will, the line drawn on the white sheet expresses true liberation. I discover a space in between–between doing and not doing–the perfect embodiment of the meditator’s attitude. Two years later, thanks to the acquisition of a new, brighter space, I developed a similar philosophy, but this time with colors.
Return to France
Since 2020, in a “homemade” cabin-studio on the heights of the Combrailles in Auvergne, a large white sheet of paper and a canvas are permanently set up. There, I delve deeper into these two techniques as if I were two separate people. Yet it is a single quest: that of creating silent images, free from concept but revealing the dynamic aspect of the mind.
*Sanzism emerged in 1948 at the Lyon School of Fine Arts following a manifesto exhibition held in the chapel of the Lycée Ampère. This group of artists proclaimed their freedom to belong to no movement (sans-isme).