Drawing is a popular art!
On the occasion of the contemporary drawing fair Drawing Now Art Fair, in Paris, from March 21 to 24 at the Carreau du Temple.
Drawing was once considered a bit like the rough draft of a painting or sculpture. The sketch of a “real” work of art… But that time is over, and that’s so much the better! I don't know about you, but I love drawing. Scrolling through drawings on Instagram has even become a personal addiction. I scroll tirelessly, I enjoy it and it's not complicated: cartoonists have become legion posting their creations on social networks. As for the “Drawing” tab of your favorite site ARTactif, it is full of gems. Take a look! Pencil drawings, ink drawings, charcoal drawings, pastel drawings, not to mention mixed media... all these wonders are here as many works of art for sale. And works of art to buy to have the immense pleasure of admiring them at home or giving them to the people you love. Because these graphic creations compete in ingenuity, harmony, strong messages... and often they are works sold less expensively than paintings or sculptures. Because they are fragile. It is no coincidence that they never remain on display for more than three months in museums, finding in turn the protective obscurity of the reserves of graphic arts cabinets. But don't panic: you will avoid exposing them to full natural light, and you will protect them with special anti-UV glass, which will allow you to enjoy them for as long as you want!
In the special drawing file that Beaux Arts Magazine has concocted for us this month on the occasion of the famous contemporary drawing fair Drawing Now Art Fair which will be held from March 21 to 24 at the Carreau du Temple, in Paris, the twelve designers and designers selected as those who are setting the trend today no longer have to fear the light, “whether they express the magical power of color, adopt graffiti as a political gesture or reinvent the human body”. An extract from a work by Mathieu Santori unfolds over the entire opening double page, perfectly illustrating the ambivalence that a drawing can support, proving if it were necessary again that colored pencils have decidedly nothing to do with harmless. Of course, since January 7, 2015, we all know that drawing can kill... But in a genre other than press cartoons, this Let's refuse our tomorrows to be dull and gray diverts the codes by using floral wallpaper in soft pastel colors , as a background to representations of children and animals that are very disturbing as soon as you look more closely…
With his always subversive drawing and multiplying planes in the manner of the Flemish Primitives, Mathieu Santori is of course one of the “12 artists to follow” according to Barbara Soyer, the journalist from Beaux Arts Magazine. Born in 1994, he lives and works in Paris, fully embracing the transgression that drives his work. And therefore the hypersexualization of his characters, since the artist “finds life erotic all the time”… Fan of Alfred Courmes (1898-1993), whom André Breton had baptized the “angel of bad taste” and whose the retrospective in 2023 in Paris, at the Espace Niemeyer, increased the popularity, but also of Henry Darger (1892-1973), an American designer who died poor and unknown, who today finds himself one of the most highly valued on the outsider art market… Mathieu Santori says “to draw things that we wouldn’t dare to think”…
In the same category, called "Free Bodies", that where "drawing becomes a space of freedom, a simple and accessible way to put an end to normative codes and bodies and to propose other visions of genres, morals and sexualities”, the journalist from Beaux Arts Magazine also ranked Soukaina Joual. Born in 1990, living and working in Morocco, the designer deconstructs images and stereotypes linked to the female body, its representation and its incarnation across cultures and art history. In 2023 she developed a set of large textile embroideries, and in 2021, her series of drawings The Female Gaze showed a naked female body in movement in the style of the photographic decompositions of Eadweard Muybridge.
In the “Scribbling” category, a genre which holds the upper hand on the current drawing scene, reinforcing the link between writing and drawing, poetry and politics, the journalist from Beaux Arts Magazine placed Anne-Lise Coste and Louis Lanne. The first was born in 1973, lives and works in Gard, and is represented by four art galleries in Europe: sorry! However, it remains no less rare in France, and particularly in Paris. She is also participating for the first time in Drawing Now Art Fair, on the stand of the Lullin + Ferrari art gallery (Zurich): keep your eyes peeled! As for the second, Louis Lanne, born in 1995, living and working in Paris, he championed the Velleda marker and the white magnetic board that he covers with his cartoonish writing. He is exhibiting until March 17 at the Beaux-Arts in Paris.
In the “Return to Childhood” category, so named to evoke graphic works borrowing from childish codes or youth albums, reconnecting with a writing and a spirit where play and freshness dominate, Beaux Arts Magazine chose Clara Cimelli and Hélène Barrel. The first was born in 1997, lives and works in Paris, and her monumental drawing Sea Life stood out against the white walls of the Belfry by closing the route of the Salon de Montrouge 2023. Her colorful art of frescoes also allows her to practice tattooing, in addition to being a fan of Trecento and Quatrocentto. The second, born in 1978, also living and working in Paris, has been having serious fun since last year with the tribulations of Gropieds, an astonishing series of pointillist gouaches with very childish grace.
There are three in the “The purity of patterns” category: Isabella Ducrot, Alexandra Duprez and Gaelle Loth. The first slice in generational terms since she was born in 1931. Isabelle Ducrot, who draws and paints on old papers and fabrics unearthed in the four corners of the world to reveal their texture and delicacy, lives and works in Rome. She is represented by the Berlin art gallery Capitain Petzel, who “discovered” her around ten years ago, and will benefit from a monographic exhibition at the Dijon Consortium from April 26 to September 8, 2024, a first in a French institution, with more than 70 works presented, most of them very recent. The second, Alexandra Duprez, was born in 1974, lives and works in Douarnenez, where she opened the Plein-Jour art gallery in 2015. She has been building her work strewn with body fragments since the 1990s, and will be at Drawing Now Art Fair on the stand of the Albrecht (Berlin) and DYS (Brussels) art galleries. The third, Gaelle Loth, born in 1988, living and working in Lyon, multiplies the faces in bright and pastel colors without ever using black. She is currently exhibiting in Annecy at Point Commun until May 11.
Finally, in the “Magic inks” category, “when the drawing obtained by the repetition, superposition and confrontation of lines, gestures and colors becomes a mental and physical experience both for the artist and for the viewer…”, are gathered Noé Herbet, whose 15-color Bic iridescence is only the prelude to future new explorations now that he is increasing his travels, Alice Gauthier, who will be at the stand of the Dilecta art gallery (Paris) at Drawing Now Art Fair with its liquefied landscapes of cosmic dimensions, and the hypnotic Anne Bourse who will benefit from a monographic exhibition upon the reopening of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Saint-Etienne Métropole in October 2024.
Enough to subscribe to a few new Instagram accounts… before going to Drawing Now Art Fair!
Article written by Valibri in Roulotte
Illustration: Drawing Now Art Fair 2019 at Carreau du Temple Galerie Papillon ©Emmanuel Nguyen Ngoc
