Remy Hysbergue | Nancy Hoffman Gallery

REMY HYSBERGUE

Remy Hysbergue was born in Valenciennes, France in 1967.
Remy Hysbergue, a young French painter, works in series, approaching each one with a clean slate, energy and freshness, each series addressing the essence of painting, the intelligence of paint itself, the texture, the surface, the mode of paint application. He never creates many paintings per series, never wanting to repeat himself. Once he delves deeply into the painterly and pictorial dialogue of the series, he ends the dialogue having understood its issues. Hysbergue has been working in acrylic on PVC panel--a smooth plastic composition, sparkling white, surface--for the past two years, following a period of time working on wood and paper in the '90s. The artist prefers a rigid window-like, mirror-like surface to enable the possibility of wide-ranging applications of paint, eschewing traditional brushwork on canvas. He puts two layers of white gesso on the panels to prepare them for the paint. What ties the series together is his love of paint and its nuances as it traverses the surface.

Remy Hysbergue, Lointain 23, 1999,
acrylic on masonite, 49 x 36 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Plates Bondes 3, 2001,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 48 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Plates Bondes 4, 2001,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 48 inches

In Distraction, the word in English meaning the same as in French, the artist uses a trowel-like tool to pull the paint across the panel vertically, leaning left or right to increase or reduce the amount of pigment that adheres to the surface. Among the most reduced of palette and structure, this recent series addresses itself to the pure quality of paint on surface, the thickness or thinness of the surface, the transparency, the shimmer of the white ground behind.

Remy Hysbergue, Distraction 5, 2001,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 47 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Distraction 15, 2001,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 47 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Distraction 27, 2001,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 47 inches

In Epoustouflant--a word meaning "awesome"--a flower-like burst of color jumps off the field, balanced by a calm white ground. A few subtle nuanced passages of paint, often white on white or shimmery silver on white, anchor the energy. Also oriental in feeling, these paintings each have an atmospheric color at the bottom edge to harness the energy of the flower-like form.

Remy Hysbergue, Epoustouflant 5, 2001,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 48 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Epoustouflont 2, 2001,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 47 inches

In the series Pneuma, a word meaning breath in French, the artist sweeps the paint across the panel in mist-like veils, almost oriental in quality. The veils of color are applied horizontally and vertically, whispers of color always honoring the white of the surface.

Remy Hysbergue, Pneuma 34, 2000,
acrylic on PVC panel, 3 x 47 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Pneuma 9, 2000,
acrylic on PVC panel, 58 x 43 inches

In Vide Fait, Hysbergue leaves a dominant field of white, which he rims, and edges with quirky calligraphic looping lines and gestures. Using syringe-like tools to drip the paint, he builds a crust of personal paint jottings along top, side, edge, creating an almost musical rhythm and verve, a tension between that which is painted and that which is not. He invites the viewer to consider the void or the negative and to recognize its profundity, physically as well as mentally.

More on Remy Hysbergue

Remy Hysbergue's Biography

Remy Hysbergue, Vide Faits 11, 2002,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 47 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Vide Faits 12, 2002,
acrylic on PVC panel, 63 x 47 inches

Remy Hysbergue, Vide Faits 21, 2002,
acrylic on PVC panel, 80 x 60 inches