Alisan Fine Arts Presents New Work by Richard Texier

Sunday, 29 April 2007 00:46

HONG KONG - Alisan Fine Arts celebrates this year’s French May with an exhibition of French contemporary surrealist artist Richard Texier, who participated in the Year of France in China 2004-5, and had a solo exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum.  Alisan Fine Arts will show 17 new works in ink & colour painted on original Chinese naval charts of the China seas of the 1970s and mounted on canvas.  Painting on old maps is one of the continuing themes of his past 30 years.  Texier has had a lifelong passion for the ocean and the universe. His creativity is not limited by medium - he fascinates viewers with surreal shapes formed in ink & colour on old maps, oil on canvas, print, tapestry and sculpture; always with a refined, serene, poetic style and sometimes mythical and mysterious. Richard Texier will be flying here from Paris for the opening of his first exhibition in Hong Kong on 23 May 2007, 6pm-7:30pm.  The exhibition continues until 23 June 2007 and a catalogue is available.

Born in 1955 Niort, France, Texier spent his childhood in the marshlands of the Poitou region and on the Atlantic coast of France where he enjoyed exploring the wild marshes, whose mysterious landscape left a deep impression on him.  During his secondary studies, he devoted his time to painting and showed an interest in Surrealism. In 1973, he moved to Paris to study architecture.  With help from the French contemporary artist Jean Degottex (1918-88), Texier completed his architectural thesis in 1979 and his doctoral thesis in 1981, receiving high honors from the Sorbonne University.  Subsequently, he started a lifelong habit of nomadic stays in different regions, to paint, discover new materials, exhibit and meet different artists such as the German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys (1921-86) and the French Nouveau Realist artist Arman (1928-2005).  In 2003, he made a sword for the international Chinese abstract artist Zao Wou-ki (b.1921), his friend since 1995 on the occasion of Zao’s election into the prestigious L’Institute de France, as a member of the Academie des Beaux-Art.

Since the 1980s, Texier has exhibited paintings, sculptures, prints and installations in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, USA, Japan, China and Taiwan and his works have been collected by the Foundation of National Contemporary Art in France and the French State, among others.

The ocean remains one of the pivotal themes of Texier’s artworks.  His work reflects the influence of the writings of the French Surrealist artist Jean Dubuffet (1901-85), the works of the French Art Brut artist Gaston Chaissac (1910-64) and those of the French Installation artist Paul-Armand Gette (b.1927).  During the 1980s, Texier liked to gather driftwood left by nature, pieces of corroded zinc, and scraps of rusty iron, which helped to inspire and sustain his work.  In the 1990s, he created artwork based on early astronomical charts of the Renaissance, as well as old nautical charts.  The works in this exhibition depict trembling graphics shapes and lines roughly drawn with Chinese brush, ink and colour on original Chinese naval charts of the 1970s.  These graphic forms symbolize the instruments used by explorers such as the compass, sextant, divider and protractor.  Together with the combination of earthly colour and dark navy, Texier opens his imaginary territories to the public, sharing his own universe of mutation and transformation.

“Texier doesn’t say, ‘I will find a road’ but ‘I will finish by finding a map.’” Daniel Pennac (French novelist), 'Ink Drawings on the Map', “West/East: Richard Texier” Year of France in China 2004-5 Exhibition Catalogue, Shanghai Art Museum, China, 2005.  For Additional Information visit : www.alisan.com.hk