Saint Louis, 2012

Christophe Vilar  

Christophe Vilar was born in Paris on April 28, 1947, and began to paint around the age of 18, taking drawing lessons in Montparnasse and sculpture and engraving at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs du Louvre.

He became the assistant of Valentine Schlegel (his aunt), and participated in the realization of his famous bas-reliefs and fireplaces in Paris.

Also a musician and photographer, he has never stopped painting!

In the 80s, saturated with Parisian life, he settled permanently in Sète.

Having finally received very little school education and plastic arts, Christophe Vilar has always considered himself an autodidact.

Certain sensitivities to form and curves undoubtedly come from his Sète family and more particularly from his aunt Valentine Schlegel, ceramist and sculptor, but also from his mother, Andrée Vilar, herself a painter, designer and poet.

Christophe Vilar has always stayed away from figuration, busy translating an abstract inner world where only more or less coherent feelings and chances take shape and color (s).

From the beginning Christophe painted in oil, having no affinity with acrylic.

Subsequently, he embarked on the path of collage, inspired by certain works by Max Ernst... He then went so far as to cut out his own paintings to bring them elsewhere, further, stronger!

The other techniques used are numerous: printing and normal inks, gouaches, pencils of all kinds, pastels, glycero, watercolours, oils, washes and glazes as well as works in driftwood, sculptures and mosaics.

Recent works 2021-2022

The recent works, 2021-2022, tell stories, we travel there through lunar but familiar, abstract but resonant landscapes, in which we can penetrate easily as long as we let our imagination express itself. We also meet characters there, the enigmatic and amusing titles can be a passport to enter the work!

This painting is not that of a fashion or an era, it is out of the ordinary, out of time, like a parenthesis of suspended freedom. It is unique and sculptural. It is the work of a complete and discreet artist!

Paintings and feelings

“Painting is not an exact science, nor even an exact art. The only exactness is the adaptation of the being according to chance and the powers of the mind. And, the imagination of the one who paints, is not always adaptable to his desires and his capacities. »

It is very difficult to predict what uncertainty offers at runtime.

We are all at some point, the good student of ourselves, we are satisfied with our own knowledge, the result then remains unsurprising. It's better to get lost sometimes, looking for where the only way to end up will be invention. If one suffers during the realization of a painting, one will most often be reconciled by the material of his work, even if ultimately it only represents the arrangement of uncertainties. Feeling, in painting, is the engine of the spirit. We only paint according to our environment and its content. Existence is not an abstraction, only reality imposes itself in one way or another.

There is no true painting devoid of feelings. »