Gaël Davrinche. À la figure

Henri Guette, Gaël Davrinche. À la figure, Paris, Éditions Lord Byron, 2021

1st edition
Edition of 200 numbered copies
The first 30 signed and numbered copies are accompanied by a digigraphy by the artist
Hard cover, 22 x 28 cm, 132 pages
French Edition
ISBN: 978-2-491901-12-7

Gaël Davrinche. À la figure is the catalog published on the occasion of Gaël Davrinche's personal exhibition organized by Galerie Provost-Hacker on the occasion of Art Paris Art Fair at the ephemeral Grand-Palais in Paris (FR) from September 8 to 12, 2021.

Gaël Davrinche is a French painter born in 1971. He lives and works in Montreuil. A graduate of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris in 2000, professor of drawing and painting at the Ateliers de Sèvres since 2007, he has since pursued an international artistic career. His prolific work, which comes in the form of paintings, drawings, sculptures and prints, mainly reinvests the classic genres of portrait and still life in a plastic dialogue between tradition and the complete deconstruction of the latter.

The artist has in fact never stopped digging, rummaging, digging into the heart of Art History in the works of his illustrious peers, which according to him constitutes the very essence of painting. Frequently borrowing from the graphic register of childhood, he humorously quotes and caricatures the masterpieces of European art as part of a river series called "Les Revisités". Asking the question of the legitimacy of the painted portrait, at a time when the commission no longer exists, Davrinche has refined his thinking over the years, notably with the series "Under the skin" or "Kalashnikov". Fundamentally free, his gesture is sometimes incisive and nervous, sometimes perfectly meticulous. The audacity with which the artist alternates styles, moving from learned realism to the most spontaneous expressionism, illustrates all the attachment to painting as a medium with still inexhaustible possibilities, although critics have repeatedly announced the contrary.

Perfectly complementary, the Memento Mori bring a dreamy breath to the work of Gaël Davrinche. In this series of drawings and paintings depicting withered flowers, the artist approaches through the prism of allegory the timeless theme of the cycle of life and finally hollow out the portrait of man in the face of his own existential anxiety. An intimate, universal feeling that he comes to explore with a lot of poetry. (Fanny Giniès)

Henri Guette is a freelance curator and journalist. He collaborates with Beaux-Arts Magazine , Transfuge , Jeunes Critiques d’Art , The Steidz and Point Contemporain , with a particular emphasis on performing arts in general and dance in particular. He also co-hosts shows on Radio Campus such as “En pleines formes” and “Pièces détachées”.