Blue automatic writing, 2020

Tanc   Famous Artists

Tanc's work is clearly influenced by abstract expressionist artists (the artist speaks of Rothko, Pollock, Reinhardt, Hartung and especially Franz Kline as sources of inspiration in his practice). Tanc's practice has taken a turn: since his New York exhibition at the Catherine Ahnell Gallery, the artist has left aside the explosion of color that marked his paintings and is now more interested in shades of black, linear variations and automatic writing. This new orientation evokes the work of Henri Michaux. Tanc is also a composer and certain notions of electronic and experimental music undoubtedly inhabit his work; the obsession with rhythm and pulsation tends to produce an intense, fascinating painting, with a unique vibratory dimension. He exhibits regularly in France, but colored or grey, his work has gained international notoriety with exhibitions in Germany (Skalitzers Contemporary Art), the United Kingdom (The French Art Studio), Morocco (David Bloch Gallery) or New York (Catherine Ahnell Gallery). He is one of the most promising artists of his generation.

About the artwork:

While the manuscript tends to disappear today, Tanc explores the aesthetic dimension of writing. Inspired by his high school years, where he took notes and produced pages that were as illegible as they were pretty, he developed an automatic writing system, entirely made with spray paint, halfway between calligraphy and graffiti. The viewer can find meaning, even words, but the goal is not to read but to feel the rhythm of the writing. The large-format and often monochrome works reveal new forms, a new alphabet. It is not known whether the writing goes from left to right or vice versa. Half-abstract, half-figurative, each work is conceived as a landscape, with an accumulation of lines that end up creating a horizon. Aided by effects of glow and dullness that the glossy paint gives to certain places on the canvas, this new series speaks of rhythm and frequencies, revealing a music in which the eye can get lost and escape.