Bernard Pianta

"Brought up in English fabric for suits, and Swiss cotton for shirts; in workshops where the men worked sitting cross-legged on tables. I owe my early introduction to drawing and painting to my grandfather Albert Pianta, and above all to his son Olivier, my father. Both were draughtsmen by profession, both were tailors and model-makers, and both painted in their spare time and in a very fine way. On the walls of the house, in addition to their own works, hang their copies of David, Delacroix, Murillo...

I discovered my first Lautrec reproduction on a greetings card from the Dormeuil fabric house. It's still in my studio! Inheritance, thanks.

During my university studies in Paris, and then at the same time as my teaching career, I practiced my drawing skills in the press and publishing industry. Then, unlike what happens to Jonas, the hero of Camus' short story of the same name (L'Exil et le Royaume, 1957), where the artist-painter gradually abandons his apartment to his growing family and intruders, ending up working in an attic from which he never returns; unlike Jonas, "reduced" to the point where he can no longer paint, it was the increasingly sustained practice of painting that eventually transformed my apartment into a studio! To those who had the patience or supported this "enlargement", here again, thanks. "

Bernard Pianta currently lives and works in the Perche region of France. He has been exhibiting in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and the United States since 1990.