A painting of the singular-plural
"I is another..." said Rimbaud.
"Game, it is the others..." could have answered Queneau.
"Hell, it is the others..." said Sartre.
"The reverse, it is the ones..." could have answered Pérec.
The one who paints "bonhommes
Gaëtan de Séguin was born in 1971 in Montpellier. Trained at the ESAG Penninghen, he did various jobs closely or distantly related to drawing before devoting himself fully to painting.
"I have always wanted two things: to live in a specific place and to "live" from my painting.
I achieved my first goal in 2010, a house/workshop that I designed and built over 10 years. A tense architecture, light and a huge view on a region that is an integral part of my life.
For 40 years, I have been the one who paints "men". I am responsible for quite a bestiary! My painting is clearly figurative. But everyone is free to invent the story of my characters."
The artist's word
"Suddenly I wanted to see my "people" gather and overflow from the canvas. Dense or sparse crowds, cheerful, dignified, silent or roaring, poignant.
Individuals with a unique physique, the sum of their conviction tinting the group. This is what I am looking for through my series "J+...". I cover my canvas with a very dense, almost garish dominant color. Then this undercoat is completely covered.
The tone becomes clear again and the tints melt into a cameo of colored grays. From there, I begin to paint by adding or subtracting matter. The music that I listen to then will give rhythm to the appearance of the group. By scratching with the most diverse tools I paint as much as with brushes and brushes."
Beings that become motifs
"Gaëtan de Séguin paints the crowd. This crowd is made up of a multitude of silhouettes, almost identical but all singular. Beings that, through the action of the painting itself, become motifs.
Strange and uncommunicative, this silhouette sometimes escapes from the crowd but without finding its salvation there. Alone, crossing his fellow man without really managing to understand him... When you know Gaëtan, this is surprising, he who loves words and conversation so much. Would his painting be his double in negative?
The multitude and the unique, the anonymous and the personal, the silence and the noise. There is all this in Gaëtan's painting, a painting of the singular-plural." - François Supiot
