Bernard Gaume

Bernard Gaume is a graduate of Fine Arts, so he makes his own ancestral techniques: imprints, prints, collages, projections… but his work also involves less academic experiences, in particular fragmentation and dilation. These two techniques developed by the artist have as their point of departure an original transitory creation which will undergo a transfiguration. In the first case, he deconstructs and dissects the transitory work in order to reconstruct another with a new impetus. The original forms are then hidden in an abstract “recomposition”, a true recreation in the form of a puzzling graphic assembly. On the other hand, Bernard Gaume also exploits digital printing technology in search of new visual and artistic effects: the transitory production takes the form of a digest in a very small format, textures and colors are like a culinary concentrate. : rich and powerful basic element that will release its flavors and fragrances in dilution, thanks to the enlargement in the form of pigmentary prints of the original image, the artist causes a blissful expansion, true breathing in the work, butterfly finally freed from its chrysalis, and it is precisely in this expansion that the art of Bernard Gaume and the radiance of the finished object are expressed. On tarpaulin or on “arches” paper, these prints are checked by the artist and numbered. From 2013, Bernard Gaume applied his fingerprint techniques to a specific subject, fish. During an exhibition a German scholar congratulated him on the "quality of his gyotaku". This is how Bernard Gaume discovered this technique until then unknown to him, here is the story: In 1862 in the land of the rising sun, a fisherman caught an enormous gray sea bream, a symbol of happiness. Wishing to offer it to the Emperor, he immortalizes his catch by coating it with ink and prints it on a paper. At the time when the French discovered the "images of the floating world" and embarked on the impressionist adventure, Japanese fishermen were adapting the traditional processes of printmaking to immortalize their most beautiful catches. The Gyotaku has just been invented. The technique of Gyotaku consists of reproducing the image of a fish on paper or fabric. GYO means fish and TAKU means footprint. Since its invention the Gyotaku has evolved and its artistic character has asserted itself. The technique of Gyotaku has long remained attached to the only Japanese archipelago. This technique has influenced Western art and recognized contemporary artists will seize on this method.