Ceysson & Bénétière

Two colors, no more, was the title of Christian Floquet's 2003 solo exhibition at the MAMCO in Geneva. It followed up one of the basic rules of his painting, another being the use of square or rectangular shapes which are also found in the format of the paintings. Two industrial colors applied with a brush on a canvas that is never framed – and whose edges are never painted – presenting flat areas that are non-expressive from the point of view of gesture (no trace of the hand passing to and fro can be seen here) and fully given over to their superficial aspect. This asceticism of painting and its practice, directly inherited from the modernist avant-garde movements, is not as simple as it appears. For it is enough to draw close to a painting by Christian Floquet to see how the declared economy of his painting highlights a fundamental fact: it is not possible, as soon as two colors are caught in two forms, to deal with a purely film-like treatment of the working surface. In other words, even with a modeling vocabulary that is limited to such an extreme extent, there is always depth that emerges from flat areas of color, however constant, spread out and strict they may be.  

If, for example, we look at the largest painting in the exhibition, Sans titre n° 14 (2021), which is made up of rectangular blue and violet flat tints, laid out obliquely on the canvas – which is also one of the constants of this art – and as if nested inside each other, it is impossible to know which were painted first, because each one can alternately take over from the other, thus opening up a minimal and operative depth: the surface does not let itself be overcome as it is always more or less – and already – a flattened depth (a "flat depth", as the art historian Jean Clay would put it). What this form of painting shows, what it has been exploring for nearly forty years, is its very impossibility, its glorious operative failure: even on the surface of the canvas, there is always a painted thickness, and thus the fabrication of a manifest pictorial illusion. Even without a narrative or illustrative will, the painted image contradicts the superficiality of the subjective in order to open up a background, however thin and fine it may be. Even without wanting to say so, painting does not cease to create an illusion.

This is what this exhibition shows once again. It is the fourth exclusively devoted to Christian Floquet by the Ceysson & Bénétière gallery: the first in New York, the others having been in Paris (2014), Saint-Étienne (2017) and Luxembourg (2020). His latest works will be on display, notably square paintings with colored squares placed obliquely in their centre: diamond shapes. Here too, the surface asserts itself and surprises us, not to say deceives us: it is enough to scrutinize it to be caught up in the vertigo of confrontation and aspiration, confrontation between two colored flat areas that touch each other without mixing; a visual aspiration through this positive and dynamic confrontation which leaves us in a state of incessant astonishment due to its eternally undecidable outcome.   

Thierry Davila, 2021

Solo shows (selection)

2020

Christian Floquet, Ceysson & Bénétière, Wandhaff, Luxembourg 

2019

Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland

2017

Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Saint-Étienne, France

2016

Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland

2014

Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Paris, France

Galerie Barnoud Entrêpot 9, Quetigny, France

2012

Christian Floquet / Franck Chalendard, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Geneva, Switzerland

2011

Galerie Media, Neuchâtel, Suisse L'Elac, Renens, Switzerland

2009

Galerie Jacques Girard, Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France

2005

F. Beaudevin / C. Floquet / CR. Tissot, Can, Neuchâtel, Switzerland

2003

Espace Arlaud, Lausanne, Suisse Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland

Deux couleurs, pas plus, Mamco, Geneva, Switzerland

2002

Confer artactuel, Nyon, Switzerland  

2000

Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland

1999

Copyright tutti edition, Verduno, Italy

1998

Galerie Eva Mack, Göppingen, Germany   

Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland

1997

Palais de l'Athénée - Salle Crosnier, Geneva, Switzerland

1996

Julije Knifer/Christian Floquet, Mamco, Geneva, Switzerland

1995

Galerie Etienne Tilman, Brusselas, Belgium

Galerie Georges Verney-Carron, Villeurbanne, France

1994

Espace Michel Voisin, Biot, France

1992

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland

1991

Galerie Gilbert Brownstone, Paris, France

1990

Galerie Georges Verney-Carron, Villeurbanne, France

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland 

Tilman Fesler & Coufo Art Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

1989

Sous-sol, Ecole Supérieure d'Art Visuel, Geneva, Switzerland

1988

Galerie Georges Verney-Carron, Villeurbanne, France

1987

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland

Le Consortium, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Dijon, France   

Kunsthalle, Winterthour, Switzerland   

Musée Géo-Charles, Echirolles, France   

Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

1986

Galerie Rivolta, Lausanne, Switzerland

1985

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland

1984

Filiale, Basel, Switzerland

Group shows (selection)

2019

Ian Anüll peinture en promo, Musée jurassien des arts, Moutier, France     

Furka kunst auf dem pass ab1983, Haus fur Kunst, Uri, Switzerland 

Friends, etc. La Collection Pierre Keller, Musee Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland

Alentour a project by John Armleder, Fondation Cab, Brussels, Belgium

2018

Nouvelles images, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland

Voyages en zigzag la collection d’Erwin Oberwiler, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Chaux-de Fonds, Switzerland

DOJO le temps de l’abstraction, Le Commun, Geneva, Switzerland

Double crème, Galerie Lange + Pult, Auvernier, Zurich, Switzerland

2017

Répliques : l’original à l’épreuve de l’art, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Chaux-de-Fonds, Ian Anüll peinture en promo, Haus fur Kunst, Uri, Switzerland

2016

Tous les tableaux sont à l’envers, Galerie Barnoud Entrêpot 9, Quetigny, France

Récit d’un temps court, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland

2015

Biens publics, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland

Print making by ECAL, Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland

2012

La ligne passée, Galerie Bernard Ceysson Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Tell the children, La Salle de Bain, Lyon, France

2009

Sept pièces faciles, Musée des Abattoirs, Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France

2008

Abstraction étendue, Espace de l'Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France

2006

Peintures aller / retour, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France Galerie Confer, Nyon, Switzerland

2001

Malerei, Galerie Eva Mack, Stuttgart, Germany

1999

bianco et nero, Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland

1998

gelb-rot-blau, Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland

Le Trésor, (collection), Frac Bourgogne, Dijon, France

Swiss Contempory Art Exhibition, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea

Qu'est-ce que l'abstraction géométrique ? La réponse de 12 artistes, Musée Matisse, Cateau-Cambrésis, France

1997

Les formes du simple, Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France

La rayure, l'intervalle, le jour, Frac Nord Pas-de-Calais, Dunkerque, France

Regel und abweichung, Schweiz konstruktiv 1960-1997, Haus für konstruktive und konkrete kunst, Zürich, Switzerland

1996

Chez l'un, l'autre, Paris, France

Stiftung für Konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen, Germany

Histoires de Blanc et Noir, Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

1994

Furkart 1994, Uri, Germany

1993

Peintures, Galerie Pierre Huber, Geneva, Switzerland

1992

Ecart show, Galerie Susanna Kulli, St-Gall, Switzerland

Blanc, Bleu, Noir, Institut Français de Naples, Naples, Italy

1991

Extra-Muros Art Suisse Contemporain, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland

Septième Triennale de l'Inde, New Dehli, India

1990

Morellet, Soto, Floquet, Manz, des Gachons, Fraisse-des-Corbières, France

1988

John Armleder, Christian Floquet, Jean-Luc Manz, Christian Marclay, Olivier Mosset, Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

1988

Ecart show, Galerie John Gibson, New York, United-States

1986

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland

Œuvres choisies du FRAC de Bourgogne, Centre d'Art Contemporain, APAC, Nevers, France

1985

Filiale, Basel, Switzerland

1984

Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland

Artistes de Genève, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, Switzerland

2013

Christian Floquet - Engager la peinture, Arnauld Pierre, MAMCO

1990

Christian Floquet, from Catherine Queloz, Xavier Douroux, Eric Colliard, interview between Francis Baudevin and Christian Floquet, French edition