Fabienne Verdier

Fabienne Verdier (born 1962, Paris, France)[1] is a French painter, known for her expertise with Chinese ink techniques.

Biography

Fabienne Verdier spent 10 years in China in 1980s learning Chinese painting when she was 20 years old. Verdier graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Toulouse in 1983 while studying Chinese at the Institut des Langues et Civilisation Orientales in Paris when she received a scholarship, but turned it down and requested to be placed in an art school in China to learn traditional Chinese painting. And by chance, Toulouse and Chongqing signed an agreement that linked them together and Verdier became the first exchange student between the two cities.

In China, the Chinese influence she came looking for was not immediately accessible under the Chinese socialist rule and the recent Cultural Revolution. Chinese art schools' curriculum were developed around socialist realism and scholars versed in traditional Chinese arts, painters, calligraphers, sculptors seals, no longer meet the standards of socialist realism and were considered subversive. In order to discourage the practice of Calligraphy, it wasn't uncommon for a calligrapher to have a hand amputated. When Fabienne Verdier first arrived in China, the Cultural Revolution had ended, but artists continued to stay in hiding.

In 1984 Verdier enrolled at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing.[2] She met Huang Yuan, a Sichuanese calligraphy master and landscape painter, who reluctantly became a mentor. He believed women should not practise calligraphy. There were also language problems, Huang only speaking the Sichuan dialect. However, Verdier was eventually apprenticed to Huang for 10 years, before returning to France.[2] On her return, Verdier wrote the story of her years in China and was published in 2005 under the title "Passenger silence: ten years of initiation in China" published by Albin Michel.[3]

Back in France, Verdier revisited western art by going to the museums and rediscovered European painters. She draws her inspirations from Flemish painters such as Rogier van der Weyden and Jan van Eyck. Based on her studies of their works, in 2013 she had an exhibition at Brugge’s Groeningemuseum, where she was the first contemporary artist to be housed in the permanent collection.[4]

Fabienne Verdier lives and works at Vexin near Paris.[3]

Creation Process

Fabienne Verdier began the process by conceiving pictorial concept through drawings. Before painting, she prepares herself by meditating on the work to come and rehearse the movements on the floor with the canvasses spread out on the floor and large Chinese brush that are mounted to an iron beam that hangs from the 12 meters high ceiling in her studio. The brushes made of 35 horse's tails absorb a big amount of paint that its weight has to be counterbalanced by being supported and suspended from the ceiling. To aid in the mobility of the brush during painting, Verdier attached a sort of bicycle handlebar onto the pulley or furrule of the brush. This technique allowed her to move around the large space of the canvas with speed and smoothness.

Exhibitions

Since Fabienne Verdier’s first solo exhibition in 1983, her works have since been widely exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Her museum shows include the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Center for Contemporary Art, Hong Kong, Chongqing Fine Arts Centre, China and an important solo exhibition, The Spirit of Painting: A Tribute to the Flemish Renaissance will take place at the Groeningemuseum in Bruges in March 2013.

Her other exhibitions were also presented at French Embassy Beijing, Maison de la Chine, Galerie Joyce, Palais Royal, Paris, Pacific Cultural Foundation, Taiwan and the Art Plural Gallery, Singapore.[2]

Solo Exhibitions

2013 Groeningemuseum, Bruges, Belgium[3]

2013 Art Plural Gallery, Singapore[2]

2009 Galerie Jaeger Bucher, Paris

2007 Galerie Alice Pauli, Switzerland

2004 Abbaye de Silvacane, Provence, France

2003 Galerie Ariane Dandois

2001 Chapelle des Beaux-arts, Paris

1997 Pacific Cultural Founadtion, Taipei

1996 Galerie Joyce Ma, Paris

1993 Hong Kong Arts Centre

1992 Maison de la Chine, Paris

1991 French Cultural Center, Beijing

1989 Fine Arts Museum, Chongqing, China

1983 Palais des Beaux-arts, Toulouse, France

Collections

Public Collections

Private Collection

Publications

References

  1. ↑ Biography, FabienneVerdier.com
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Ang, Kristiano (6 February 2013). "Chinese Technique, Applied to a Western Canvas". The Wall Street Journal Asia. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Guggémos, Alexia (9 April 2013). "Dans l'atelier de Fabienne Verdier: son hommage aux maîtres flamands". Le Huffington Post (in French). Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  4. ↑ "Fabienne Verdier: hulde aan de Vlaamse meesters". Visit Bruges.

External links