François Bard’s paintings seem simple: the
material is built layer by layer, from the dark background to the touches of
light, marked by the tools, the brush strokes, frottis, scraping, imperfections
on the surface, drips, thin, asphalt-looking glazing staining the picture like
accidental splatters. In his precise, flamboyant paintings, he captures the
objective and the subjective, the outside and the inside.
“I like it when the human figure triggers
something in the onlooker, but without imposing too much nevertheless,” says
François Bard. “Hence the fact that I often avoid faces to show the subjects’
backs and suggest more than I actually describe. I try to find the myth in the
commonplace. It is almost propaganda for my everyday life.”
