FROM FEBRUARY 3 TO 26, 2011 AT MUSEAAV, Place Garibaldi, Nice
OPENING on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2011
“The Dreamed Life of Trees” by Véronique Rischard
Monique Boghanim, Artistic Director of MUSEAAV:
Véronique Rischard only draws trees, using Indian ink on a white painted background that she constantly works on, layer after layer. The trees extend their branches in graceful convolutions. They possess the flexibility and choreographic aesthetics of dancers extending their arms in airy movements. To put it simply, Véronique Rischard is also an opera director. At the end of these extensions, there is a meticulous work of thousands of leaves that she playfully enjoys. Mastering Indian ink and its subtleties, it offers a magnificent exercise in style.
It is courageous today to continually draw trees. Even though there is no longer a hierarchy of genres as in the 19th century, landscape is no longer in favor in contemporary art. Ignoring the audible sirens of time and the tyranny of the avant-garde, the artist tunes in solely to her inner silence. The art and method of Véronique Rischard succeed in providing us with a refined pleasure. The ever-present tree as the sole subject. The whitish, cotton-like background, reminiscent of a sky close to Paradise… Is it an oak, an olive tree? Symbols alternately of peace, justice, and strength? But the species is of little interest in the end. The trunk is enormous, aged, serving as the link between the terrestrial roots, whose powerful presence can be sensed, and the celestial branches. Considering that the tree outlives us, it speaks to us all of immortality and our fleeting human condition.
It is in composition that Véronique Rischard excels, giving balance through the interlacing of branches and twists of the trunk. A light air breath, the white circulates among the leaves. In a purely romantic inspiration, the spectator’s soul is immersed in this silent nature. In diptych or triptych, the branches, excessive vegetation, grow infinitely, invading the canvas from panel to panel. Whether or not there are figures in a landscape is not indifferent. Before Véronique Rischard’s paintings, where there are none, the viewer appropriates all the space, feeling harmony and fulfillment.
The artist recounts that as a little girl in Luxembourg, she loved to go to the back of the garden, into a tree to dream… In front of “the trees,” it is our turn to indulge in moments of pure Zen contemplation.
