Charles Henri Monvert — À propos — Slash Paris

The logic behind Charles-Henri Monvert’s pictures is based on the development—starting from an initial grid—of a structural combination of infinite variations. The oeuvre takes the form of a process of weaving and overlapping, which causes several overlaid time-related planes and strata to interfere with each other. Each new layer not only covers the old one, but, by way of impregnation, retains the memory of the original grid. From the initial pure white to the final structuring, a whole visual gamut is constructed, a keyboard of values, tones and grains, density and mattness, a weft which, through the resurgence of lines of force, makes the tensions within the picture visible. An infinitesimal relief is drawn, nothing less than fabric within fabric. This faculty of memorization and alteration makes it possible to confront an unchanging structure and its many metamorphoses. Here, logic and hunch join hands; each work carries within it the mark of something in the offing, and something random.