Six monumental paintings in the exhibition encapsulate the essence of Olivier Debre\u0301\u2019s work. They summarise a lifetime of visual experimentation focused on concrete expression of the intangible. The artist incorporates space and light going on to unleash them in the form of colourful layers filling the viewer\u2019s space. Created as components of one and the same series in 1990-1991, they are reunited for a public exhibition for the first time at the cccod. <\/p>\n
The title of the exhibition, drawing a symbolic link between Claude Monet\u2019s Nymphe\u0301as (water lilies) and Debre\u0301\u2019s large paintings, alludes to the entire history of 20th century abstraction. Monet\u2019s later works were indeed considered by certain artists, Abstract Expressionists for example, the first illustrations of a form of abstraction in painting. \u2018Olivier Debre\u0301\u2019s Nymphe\u0301as\u2019 does not intend to imply a direct influence of the Impressionist on the Loire valley artist, but instead highlights conceptual similarities between their respective creative processes.
The idea of an abstraction that draws its inspiration from nature, from the sensory world, has always been controversial. This paradox is however often highlighted regarding the work of Debre\u0301, who enjoyed immersing himself in the landscape, on the banks of the Loire for instance, to paint. <\/p>\n
But if Debre\u0301 is indeed a landscape painter, he recreates mental landscapes on the surface of the canvas: what could be more abstract? <\/p>\n
These are not direct representations of the river, but interpretations of its truly visual fluidity, liquidity. In the face of these works, the gaze escapes, flourishes and wanders at the whim of the surface, becoming lost in the use of transparency and at times dry, at times wet subject. For Debre\u0301 does not work with subject solely to be striking, he provides his colours with a tactile relief and captivating presence that reverberates well beyond the limits of the canvas.<\/p>\n
The work, assuming a spatial dimension, merits being hung in a specific way, enabling it to be comprehended from a variety of perspectives, comparable with that in which the artist perceived his canvases in the studio. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six monumental paintings in the exhibition encapsulate the essence of Olivier Debre\u0301\u2019s work. They summarise a lifetime of visual experimentation focused on concrete expression of the intangible. The artist incorporates space and light going on to unleash them in the form of colourful layers filling…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"mec_category":[135,133],"class_list":["post-23809","mec-events","type-mec-events","status-publish","hentry","mec_category-exposition","mec_category-olivier-debre"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec-events\/23809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec-events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/mec-events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23809"},{"taxonomy":"mec_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccod.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/mec_category?post=23809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}