Chat Des Collines, 2003

Richard Boigeol  

Richard Boigeol is a French artist born in 1959 who lives & works in Marseille, France. Since childhood, it is with papers for drawing that Richard Boigeol expresses himself best. He shapes his own world by feeding on what he sees around him. He took drawing lessons from the age of 7. 

At 17, he is part of a group of students working in the streets of Pompeï and Herculaneum surrounded by admirers under the benevolent supervision of his teacher. It's the birth of his first audience. He also studied art history during his initiation trips to Italy. 

His style is recognizable among so many others; nothing is irreconcilable in his painting which he defines as contemporary narrative figuration. The humor full of good humor which he shows, takes on the air of children's games; everything, in his paintings and his objects, is a humorous assemblage, games of quotes and paradoxes. 

Of course, he is influenced by the great masters and if you take the time to look, you can find a search for new shapes and unique color combinations. For him, color is life. These dynamic and very graphic compositions are found in his advertising boards. Staging with unlikely characters and things for example, a cat and an American road sign; a clown with a fake big red nose head; a saxophonist and an African card-shaped brain; a building in the shape of a musical instrument (notice to architects !!). 

He tells stories of our time in images in the form of an allegory which he uses to convey messages like the famous language of the Stones under which he slides an ice cream, not without playfulness. He can use current events to create a table, as in the work "My President" collage cardboard on canvas or the poetic version of Jill & John (the yellow vests). 

Richard Boigeol is an artist at heart; music plays a central role in his life as in his work; he plays the piano and there are many appearances of instruments in his paintings. He was contacted by Laurie Verchomin, the wife of the great American pianist Bill Evans, to illustrate his book "The Big Love". These works mark the mind like children's drawings.