Bertrand Lavier

Following an extended collaboration with the gallerist Yvon Lambert, Bertrand Lavier is, for the first time, showing work at the Almine Rech gallery. The artist is presenting a collection of works from totally different “construction sites”, series that he step by step picks up over time as his work evolves. A guided tour.

Here, I present many series of works, including new “Walt Disney Productions”. These works have classic frames, that give them a kitsch insolence. Stemming from one fiction – the one drawn by Disney – they tip over to a different – one related to the field of art. These bright white wood frames with foliage and arabesques highlight their artificial aspect. This is the first time that you’re using frames albeit they were already present within the 1947 Disney cartoon Mickey at the museum of modern Art.

The Walt Disney Productions “construction site” started in 1984 with a series of Cibachromes, then ink jets on canvas till 2013, the year when I started painting on these prints. It was additionally in 1984 that I started covering mirrors with a “Van Gogh touch”. From 2011, I finished covering their entire surface however instead would paint them with a “brushstroke touch” immortalised by Roy Lichtenstein. This way, I appropriated a basic gesture from modern painting and used it on the mirrors and Walt Disney Productions. This gesture, freer than the “Van Gogh” touch, permits me to simply follow the curves of painted motifs. Professional Painter