Michel Temim

Born in 1957, Michel Temim lives and works in Paris. Self-taught, he studied nudes at the Grande Chaumière studio. He has been an assiduous painter and drawer for over three decades.

Michel Temim's painting reflects a social reality. Incessant observation of his surroundings enables the artist to pick scenes from a deck of cards, providing material for short stories and urban legends.

His work is nourished by images from his childhood, the better to fantasize about a present-day world that he captures in snapshots of life. This bygone world, which seems to have escaped him, is reappropriated by the artist. He offers an in-depth reading that bears witness to the universal and timeless meaning of existence. Humanity remains at the heart of his work. A simple setting situates the action with precision. His characters, often solitary, fill the canvas. Michel Temim's paintings sometimes verge on caricature. The artist relies on a classic technique of glazing and multiple layers of color. His paintings are vivid and strong. All this is underpinned by an assertive, figurative line, creating a dense, vigorous body of work.

Michel Temim's painting suffers from no aggression, nor is it burdened with spectacular, seductive artifice. On the contrary, his subjects are treated with kindness, even if they express gravity and the difficult place of man in society. Rather than attempting an exact reconstruction, the artist offers the space for a singular vision.