Christian Alandete and Pavlina Vagioni in front of a painting by Eugène Carrière at Kamel Mennour Gallery Paris.
I was in Paris for the Paris Plus Art Basel fair a few weeks ago. Going to art fairs around the world is part of my art practice. It combines the joy of traveling, remaining up to date with the art world, and seeing up close works of artists I like.
During my stay in Paris, I also went to various galleries, one of which was Kamel Mennour. My friend Theodora Koumoundourou of ARTHENS had arranged the visit and meeting with the curator of the show Christian Alandete. To my surprise, it was an exhibition of paintings by Eugène Carrière – a master painter who I believe hasn’t received the recognition he deserves. Although I have many books on him in my art book library, I have seen only one painting of him in the past. So, you can imagine my excitement when I closely observed so many works in the Kamel Mennour gallery spaces.
Books on Eugène Carrière.
Eugène Carrière is one of the artists I admire and draw inspiration from. The central theme of his paintings is his wife and children. Family scenes full of tenderness and intimacy. Daily family life transformed from an ordinary routine into an otherworldly, dreamy reality. He uses his brush like a sculpting tool with an almost monochromatic color palette. He is removing, re-applying paint, dabbing, smudging, dragging, and engraving the canvas with brushes of varying width and hair softness. By viewing the two-dimensional image on the canvas like a sculptor, he moves his brush like a tensor on a three-dimensional object. For those who aren’t familiar with physics, imagine a tensor as a tiny ant that follows the curvature of a surface. The brush of Eugène Carrière follows precisely this trajectory. These brushstrokes, in combination with a varying opacity in the oil color, give further depth, movement, and fluidity to the works. Also, by slightly dragging the brush right before the color dries, he creates this “haze” that, decades later, Gerhard Richter will be famous for with his distinctive style of painting.
Detail of a painting by Eugène Carrière with a slight “dragging” effect.
Art is like a relay race. One idea is transmitted from one artist to another, and in this way, art evolves and progresses. We can only feel grateful for these artists who keep expanding the richness of our craft.
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