L'Atelier Montmartre - Exhibition
Exhibition of large scale paintings in Montmartre
July 2023
In the northern part of Paris, there is a magical hill called Montmartre. It is a place full of colors, sounds and life. About a hundred and fifty years ago, young avant-garde artists chose this hill to be their home as it was a charming village with many windmills, a long daylight and a somewhat wild charm of parisian suburbs. All free-spirited and creative people were drawn to the vibe of this place. That is how, without realising, they created "La Bohème", which would become so significant to the French art history.
In the middle of this hill, there is Rue Burq and in the middle of this street, there is a lovely restaurant/café/bar called L'Atelier Montmartre. This venue has a special place in my heart as they were the first ones, who exhibited my art. Thanks to them I was assured that my work has not only its interest for parisians, but also its unique place in local contemporary art scene.
It was in L'Atelier Montmartre, where I was first invited to do my life painting performances, it was here where I met so many people who would become vital for my future as an artist in Paris.
This was in 2016. Since then I had three exhibitions in this place, which thanks to its high ceilings and a considerable viewing distance allows me to show my large scale artwork which, let's face it, is quite rare in Paris, where everything is miniscule. Their appreciation for all forms of art and any theme or subject is also quite rare in this city. It might be surprising, but if you want to exhibit your work in Paris elsewhere than in a gallery, you must be pretty prudent about the things you paint, or at least that you want to show. The city of lights might want you to believe that it is open minded, sex positive free spirited until you bring a slightly disturbing piece to your exhibition. Nudes, paintings of less than joyful scenes and other kind of "non-happy/pretty" art is usually met with a nervous grin and a polite: "This doesn't really go with the theme of this place." response. You want to be sure to have success in Paris as a painter? Paint abstracts or Basquiat inspired street art. That is a safe choice. With a little effort you will have lots of shows and sales.
But what about artists whose inspiration lies in more disturbing aspects of life? Those have to be looking for more underground scene venues, or be lucky to find a spot such as this one, where art still has its value and is not only used as a neutral decoration of the walls.
In this exhibition, which was offered to me quite last minute, I selected some of my favorite larger scale paintings, mainly from the period of the last four years. In this time, I shifted my focus from the female nude, to animals and esoteric themes. You can follow the evolution of the form transformation and the free figuration in my art.
The star of this show seems to be "Vanity". A diptych of acrylic paint on canvas, which was originally made for a Salon FMR in Le Pré Saint-Gervais, a Parisian suburbs. You might know the concept of Vanity in fine arts. It means something very specific. Vanity is a still life, which represents the briefness of human life, and is somewhat similar to a Death altar.
You see, a few centuries ago it was
quite a trend to place a human skull on one's desk in order to be constantly reminded of one's mortality and therefore boosting your productivity. It was especially popular among artists and writers. Vanity is a painting version of this phenomenon. It was generally a painting of a table with a skull, a sand clock, some dried fruit and flowers. These are all subjects you can find in this painting as a reference to the original meaning of Vanity in fine arts. However I also translated it to more contemporary terms and adapted it to the style I was doing at the time (2019) which were abstract female nudes. Therefore here the meaning of vanity is also represented in depicting a vain woman, admiring herself in a reflection, with all the youth, beauty and wealth she posses, but in the reflection there is death staring back at her. The briefness of all this earthly gains is represented through lots of details in this artwork.
This artwork was only shown once before, due to its large scale and even though it is one of the older paintings in this show, it was the one which attracted most people's attention.
I would like to thank L'Atelier Montmartre for giving me a show once again this year. The exhibition had such a success it makes my heart sing.
You can still see this show until the 6th of August 2023.
If you want to be informed about my future shows please join my invitation list by clicking here:
Thank you for reading and don't hesitate to write a comment, I will be happy to read them and to respond to any questions.
Have a beautiful Day,
Nella Fauve