Chicorée

A French painter born in 1942, Chicorée paints since her childhood.

Amazing bouquets, obviously : Chicorée graduated from Versailles' École Nationale Supérieure d'Horticulture, and was awarded in 1972 the title of Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftman of France) in floral design.

But her experience of German expressionists, Joseph Turner, Georges Mathieu and Zao Wou-Ki made her turn towards lyric abstraction — without ever losing her fascination for Van Gogh, from which she gets her colorful palette.

Chicorée is in love with matter : she paints mostly with her bare hands, or a knife. And she never feels the slightest qualm about leaving a painting for months or even years, only to (literally) put her hands back on it when the time has come.

With an ultimate ambition : bringing a questioning process in the viewer's mind.