Maria Lagrange

Franco-Argentinian painter

Workshop : 100 rue Charenton Paris

Author of the manifesto gradual figuration of 2014

Today some painters try to reconnect with the technique while considering the legacy of abstraction; this is the case of Maria Lagrange, a Franco-Argentinian artist, who after studying at the Beaux-Arts questioned herself by wondering how to give a new turn to art. How in turn could she restore, renovate and reuse paint from a new angle?

All these questions were answered one day, during a strong experiment around a Chinese print dating from the 8th century. The Chinese had already conceptualized abstraction well before us and Maria had an exceptional face to face with her time and her time. She who followed the contemporary wave, was suddenly seized with vertigo and understood that her era, which believed itself to be innovative, was already more than ten centuries behind. So, seized with a frenzy, she locked herself in her studio, took her brush and reconnected with painting by leaning on the unconscious, letting herself go to draw shapes which resulted in a cycle called Dante's Hell. . For ten full days, she stayed in her studio and let herself be guided by shapes that she perceived deep inside her. This is how the gradual figuration was born.

"A figuration" which originates in the unconscious, and which therefore results in the rebirth of the figuration by the spirit then by the matter. Matter is only the link between form and spirit. This figuration is gradual because the painter's unconscious brings back forms which gradually take on a real physical form.

Most of his works are thus constructed. For her, it is " the art of highlighting non-explicit combinations, works which open up coherent fields of thought, so that it freely uses the various qualities of time, necessary for awareness ".