Gérard Traquandi — Laurent Godin Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: March 19 → May 7, 2011

“One needs to produce what has already been experienced through one’s senses. As if nature, in the broadest sense, and all that surrounds us were not enough. Paintings describe life, and as they reach a certain quality, they in turn create this feeling of frustration that drives us. I do what painters have always done, that is to say transferring perceptions, using color, on a canvas. All this in a historical context. I choose axis, I leave to photography its power of representation, and to cinema its narrative ability. I work by substraction. (…)

‘You See What You See’ of Frank Stella is an ultimate step in the attempt to reach real abstraction. An attempt to liberate art from nature. I am really impressed by his stripe paintings, but as for me, I always need to go back to landscape to make a fresh start when a series leads me to work too mechanically. Drawing is the backbone of my work. It is the thriftiest technique I know, there is no better way for me to consort intimatly with the subjects that move me. Drawing is a form of meditation that requires choices, helps to forget oneself. My painting is not abstract… say, it is un-figurative. The relevance of a painting is largely due to the quality of its surface. I am more and more attached to this dimension in my work, by praising the materials I use, I could reach the praise of nature that I aim for."