Laurence Courto

Artistic background and approach
Born in Dijon in 1953, Laurence Courto is a contemporary French artist trained at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris and holds a doctorate in urban planning. After a 20-year career in urban planning, she devoted herself entirely to painting. Her work, influenced by travels (Cuba, Cape Verde, China) and the study of Asian calligraphy, explores collective memory through a style described as "Magdalenian parietal." Her works blend archaism and modernity, layering graffiti, colored strata, and luminous traces in a gestural style that fuses lyrical abstraction with influences from Pollock, Twombly, and Rothenberg.

Recognition and influence
Her creations explore temporality and "nomadic memories" through techniques of scratching, erasing, and calligraphic signs. Exhibited internationally (Jean-Jacques Rousseau Museum, Faure Museum, MACLA Museum, Galata Museum in Genoa) and represented in galleries in Paris, Milan, and Geneva, she has received several awards, including the Cesare Pavese Prize (2002) and the BAG Prize at the Salon d'Automne (2008). Critics (Lydia Harambourg, Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret) emphasize the poetic power of her world, where "simplicity lends a velvety quality to violence," creating a dialogue between raw gesture and meditation.