Notes de regards, 2011

François Rouan  

François Rouan is a French artist, born June 8, 1943 in Montpellier. He devotes himself to painting, photography and video. He lives and works in Laversine (Saint-Maximin).

A young resident at the Villa Medici, from 1971 to 1973, he actively met Balthus there and, around the 1960s, became involved in the Supports / Surfaces movement following an emphasis on braiding which earned him the recognition of Jacques Lacan. He will detach himself from it little by little and will turn to a more personal approach; braiding, renewing techniques and supports. The artistic complicity and friendship linked by the two men will continue beyond this Roman stay, to Rossinière.

His current, very prolific work takes him to increasingly volatile materials, in particular through the photographic treatment of the imprint, extended by videographic reinscriptions which give him the opportunity to return to the painting in a redesigned space, in variation , traveled through unprecedented speeds and mergers. The stamp and the shell (in the typographical sense, so to speak) develop a complex and almost labyrinthine interlacing. The colors echo in a sort of mixing that makes one think of the wings of the butterfly in their almost photogenic or mimetic relationship in the middle.