| biography Christophe Beraet, Artist-Painter-Plastician, Engraver-Sculptor and poetry writer was born in Nice in 1968. Self-taught, he has been drawing since childhood and painting since the age of thirty. He has the chance to meet Mrs. Ling Hsu, a Chinese calligrapher living in Nice with whom he perfected his knowledge of Chinese ink art for a whole year (2004-2005). It is from this period that he kept the fluidity of the material on the canvas as well as an exceptional calligraphic dexterity that can be found in his poetry circles (catalogue in progress). His artistic influences are largely linked to 20th century European painting: fauvism (Neuen Wilden / Germany) and neo-expressionism. European artists such as Bacon, Baselitz, Mossa, Kirchner, Chagall, Kokoschka, Modigliani, Hundertwasser, Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, have probably led Christophe to a singular reflection towards a striking visceral pictorial art. By disrupting the codes of conventional painting, these great visionary masters developed in him the desire to imitate the duplication of organic and psychological life *. Fascinated by Pina Bausch's dance theatre, where we find unstructured living bodies, and Japanese Noh theatre, where the frozen expression of faces and masks expresses the diversity of states of souls, he creates a series of paintings with striking colours that he calls "Rust Period" 2009 -2014 (cf. Catalogue). After six years of solitary work, he met the artist-painter-enluminer Christian Geai with whom he learned the art of the Mural of the Eye and the Mural Fresco. He will learn with him the old techniques in his school "ARDEC" in Nice (2009-2010). From this traditional learning, Christophe will transform this knowledge to use it according to his needs. As for his brief stint at the MAMAC contemporary art studio in 2005, he will mainly focus on Yves Klein's "anthropometries", which will give him the idea of an introspective pictorial work face-to-face with his own body. (see "Body-Bed-Door" catalogue). This will lead ten years later to a process of hybridization of his imprint towards a bodily utopia (cf Michel Foucault). At the end of 2017, he left Nice to set up his painting studio in Vence, a town where Henri Matisse and Jean Dubuffet had stayed. Great artists he appreciates, one for the bright colours and the other for having revealed Art Brut to the general public. Christophe has been participating in exhibitions in France and abroad (Paris, Berlin, Potsdam, Osaka, Milan, Liechtenstein, Principality of Monaco) for the past ten years. Winner of several awards and present in private collections in the United Kingdom, Germany and France, he is known for his unique paintings. It is highly appreciated by the famous Parisian gallery owner Mrs Cérès Franco ("l'oeil de boeuf"), who, at the end of her career, constitutes the most important collection of Brut and singular art in Europe. She selects five large drawings from the "Corps-Lit-Porte" series that are now part of her exceptional collection stored at the "Coopérative Cérès Franco" in Montolieu (southwest France). (Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator) - Member of the Société des Artistes Français, Paris / Bronze medal 2015 (painting section) - 2018 Nicolas Cizeron Prize (awarded to a French expressionist artist) - 2015 Aiap-Unesco-Monaco Jury Prize - 2015 Painting Prize of the Monegasque National Commission, Monaco - Municipal School of Plastic Arts-Villa Thiole, Nice. (Free Auditor: Engraving, Ceramics, Contemporary Drawing, Art History). - Artdec School - Christian Geai, Nice. Mural fresco and Trompe-l'œil. - Assistant at the MAMAC art workshop in Nice. - Atelier E.C.A.P., Nice / Diplôme C.A.A.P. (Class d'approfondissement en arts plastiques) - École des Métiers d'Arts - Complete curriculum (3 years), Tapestry, Furnishings, Fashion •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• I consider myself a "blind" artist (figuratively speaking). At the age of 30, I decide one day to paint what I cannot see with my eyes. I paint my first painting like a child's play, to formulate what words cannot say, to bring out what until then had no form. Self-taught, I start a creative experience without pretensions or prejudices, without knowledge or artistic training. I invent my practice step by step and alone for six years. Forgetting the renunciations and the daily difficulties, I dedicate myself to Drawing and Painting since 2004. From the beginning, I chose the free drawing and the body print as the formulation of my base of expression, the only one, in my opinion, capable of allowing the manifestation of the "non-mental" space. Every creation or recreation is a letting go of the present moment. All my activity comes from this creative experience, through a multidimensional paranoid subliminality! At 41 years old, I meet Christian Geai (Christian Geai workshop, rue des Ponchettes in Nice) with whom I will learn more technique and discover the mural fresco and the art of the trompe l'oeil. In 2010, I discovered printmaking with the artist collective ArtNice. The following year, I perfected my knowledge by following the courses of the workshops of Engraving, Ceramics, Contemporary Drawing and History of Art at the Municipal School of Plastic Arts-Villa Thiole of Nice, during four years. However, after all these discoveries, I do not lose my first will: free drawing, because painting and drawing is above all for me, an impulsive and intimate moment of the present that does not communicate with the world of everyday life, it is a primitive and primordial expression. Today, I present a figurative painting that is strong, lively, uncomplicated and poetic. I continue this quest for body to body, even beyond, with my body and the bodies of my intimate friends. Over time, my work has become an evolutionary quest towards another human being's reason. Chris BERAET Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator |
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