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26/11/2002

Christopher Le Brun

Galerie Fortlaan 17, Gent

'The motif is painting itself'

Since 1980 Christopher Le Brun (born 1951) has been exhibiting internationally. His paintings and sculptures have been included in many public and private collections. In 2001 a monograph about Le Brun's work was published. This comprehensive publication presents the artist's achievements in a wider perspective, provides insight into the process of past and future paintings and focuses on Le Brun's career as a painter. As the artist works in the field of the conflict between painting and its symbolic content, he moves continually between the figurative and the abstract.

"When you talk about 'horses and riders' in my work, it's important to me that they're not seen as real. The motif creates some kind of psychological field, so I think of it as an entrance, or a key, to the place that I want to enter. It's as if 'the horse' enables the journey, rather than providing the final subject of the painting. The final subject requires an object through which it might be expressed. Partly for practical reasons, the brush needs something to grip and model during the thinking-out of such an abstract subject." (Christopher Le Brun in conversation with Bryan Robertson, 1998)

The artist's statement that "the motif is not the subject but the object the artist is the subject" actually sums up the central idea that underlies Le Brun's entire oeuvre. This implies that Le Brun himself is "the subject" of the recently published monograph. The motif or subject chosen by the artist for each work and often referred to in the title, is not the final subject. Le Brun distinguishes between "the subject as a vehicle" and "the subject as the overall destination of his works".

The motif can be seen as a pretext for a painting but not as the subject of art. This implies that the key elements lie in the choices to be made by the artist.
We are talking about paintings which might appear figurative and paintings which might appear abstract. Le Brun's paintings may or may not confront us with specific images, but all of them consist of brushstrokes and paint. His work does not represent different genres. The images cannot be seen as pictures directly of the world, as the artist's concept of the painting deals with images of the pictorial world; the concept leads a life only within the painting and originates from a link with painting.

Christopher Le Brun has chosen The motif is painting itself as a title for the exhibition at Galerie Fortlaan 17 in Ghent. He not only wants to draw attention to "the painting" as such, but also to "painting" as a verb, and to the images which arise from the material as both material and image. The surface of his paintings has been manipulated, structured, reworked, scraped off and covered with numerous layers of paint. The final image results from the superimposition of different images.

Not only the material, not only the painting, but also the history of art plays an important role in the idea expressed by The motif is painting itself. The concept should not be interpreted as a formal approach in which the artist paints for the sake of the painting. The physical substance of the painting is pervaded by traces of our cultural heritage. As a contemporary artist, Christopher Le Brun takes a keen interest in the tradition of painting, in painting as one of the original or achetypical artforms, as the womb from which images are born. His imagery and painting is fed by his imagination and unconscious and his interest in the different aspects of painting is directly recorded in his paintings.

In 1995 Le Brun started working with sculpture, enriching his imagery with a third dimension. His sculptures are not only formal, but have a strong pictorial aspect. The artist treats the surface of his bronzes in a painterly way. It is as if the material dissolves and the painting remains.
Images in sculptures can be present simultaneously, say through juxtaposition, whereas painting allows obliteration, change and superimposition. There is no concept of underpainting in sculpture. To no lesser extent than in his paintings, in his sculptures, too, the motif is not the subject, but the motif is painting itself Quotes which might provide us with a key to unlock the density of Christopher Le Brun's work.

Bibliography:
Christopher Le Brun, 2001 with texts by Charles Saumarez-Smith, Norbert Lynton and Bryan Robertson 300 pages, 180 colour illustrations, 20 black and white illustrations;
The monograph is available at Galerie Fortlaan 17, Ghent, Belgium.

Preview on Friday 15 November 2002 from 7 p.m. until 9.30 p.m. The artist will be present.

Open: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday : 2 - 6 p.m and Saturday: 10.30 a.m - 6.30 p.m.
Closed from 24 December 2002 until 2 January 2003

Galerie Fortlaan 17
Fortlaan 17
B 9000 Gent
T.: +32 (0)9 222.00.33
F.: +32 (0)9 221.63.27

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