Alain Pontecorvo

A sharp eye and the desire to draw attention to subjects that at first glance may appear ordinary make Alain Pontecorvo an artist like no other. His still lifes, portraits, urban landscapes and interiors are recurring themes explored in a thousand different ways.

An artist in the making

From the age of three, Alain Pontecorvo’s mind was focused on only one thing – drawing everything he saw and, paradoxically, the things that no-one paid much attention to. After studying at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, he took night classes at the Ecole Estienne for a year, perfecting his skills in typography, and advertising and graphic art, fields he was particularly fond of. He even created his own typographic character, the Pontecorvo!

Pontecorvo’s career began moving towards advertising. He started out working as a young artistic director for Havas, before going on to work with a number of other agencies. In 1971 he met Jacques Séguéla and the pair went on to work together for fourteen years. In 1976, he decided to begin painting again, having abandoned the practice at the start of his career.

The Pontecorvo style

Wherever he goes, Alain Pontecorvo takes a small camera and sketchbook so that he can immortalise any moment and satisfy his irrepressible desire to create.

A traditional painter, Pontecorvo is heir to both the Dutch School, with his unremitting work on light, and the Italian School, with his meticulous arrangement of compositions and use of pigment. Equally a contemporary painter, he wavers between romantic and modern realism.

Additionally, an underlying expressionism propels his art beyond simple figuration and places the painter in line with other visionaries. A seer and a voyeur, idealistic and pragmatic, Pontecorvo’s art is balanced, incredibly elegant and unquestionably rich.