Ceysson & Bénétière

Born in 1986, in Clermont-Ferrand, France.

Lives and works in Paris, France.

2018   PhD in Arts and Sciences of Art, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne,

            Paris, France 

2012   Post-graduate, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris France

             Formation in scientific management of artworks,

             École du Louvre/École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris, France

2011    National Superior Diploma of Plastic Art (DNSAP),

             École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, Atelier Jean-Michel Alberola,

             mémoire dirigé par Alain Bonfand, Paris, France

2009   National Diploma of Plastic Arts (DNAP), École Nationale Supérieure

             des Beaux-Arts de Paris,

             Atelier Jean-Michel Alberola, Paris, France

             Master's degree II Arts and Sciences of Art, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne,

             Paris, France

2024    Monography Collection grant by ADAGP

2016    Exceptional aid for creation, National Center for Plastic Arts CNAP
, France 

2014    Fénéon Prize (Art) from the Chancellery of the Universities of Paris, France 

2013    Contemporary Talent Prize of the François Schneider Foundation,

              Fondation de France

              Art Collector Award, France

              Yishu 8 House of Arts of Beijing Prize, China 

2011     Agnès B. Prize of the Friends of the Beaux-Arts of Paris, France 

2009     Research grant, Arts and Sciences of Art, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                                  

2012-15   Villa Belleville - Point Ephémère, Paris, France 

2013          Yishu 8 - House of Arts, Beijing, China 

Claire Chesnier’s ink paintings have an upwards atmospheric thrust in their overt abstraction, in their pigment density and liquid materiality. Their verticality displays bodily proportions and paradoxically veers towards the horizontality of a tremolo, streaking the paintings with striations of chromatic gradients. Two axes are superimposed – body axis and landscape axis – making it impossible to reconstruct the painting’s phases. The recent paintings, which have more of a fibrous, corporeal and organic quality than those exhibited in 2020 at the Galerie ETC, are dawnings of abstraction, luminous apertures onto the unfolding of hazy spectrums. For each painting, Claire Chesnier jots down in private notebooks the colour values underlying the strata. For instance, the annotated sketch linked to painting 010921 lists the following colours bottom to top: "indigo, dark purplish indigo, red anthracite, dark Sienna magenta, Sienna/burgundy, dark ochre, Sienna/red ochre, old yellow gold, silver/gold, blue grey, pearly white violet-pink, greyish white, pearl blue, yellow sea-green, pale sea-green blue, pearl cyan white". Over fifteen colours, recorded in a condensed form that never divulges the totality, the imperceptible alteration of hues, the evanescent shift from greyish-white to pearl blue. And notwithstanding its precision, this list can never convey how the ambient light is channelled.  

Jean-Charles Vergne

Vacant Landscapes 

In reality, in front of this painting where color emancipates itself from the subject matter, one mainly thinks of Rothko. Chesnier openly admits her admiration for this pioneer of abstract expressionism. Rothko, whose colors, usually applied in transparent glazes, give rise to rectangular configurations symmetrically superimposed on an almost monochromatic background. 

Just like him, in the works of the French artist, the color areas with blurred contours are like chromatic stretches of boundless radiant luminosity. Here, no details are subordinate to a whole but a swathe of paint, a coloring matter invading the surface. Boundless landscapes that resist the possibility of being traversed by a gaze, fields expanding infinitely and remaining inaccessible to the viewer. Each work addresses, in its own way, the problems of forms and colors, the relationship between opacity and transparency, between what veiled and unveiled, between saturated tones or velvety materials. There is no indication on the creation of the painting, no traces of a brush, no gestural touch signaling the process. 

There is an astonishing contrast between this wide array of nuances sliding upon each other and the precision with which they are executed. This meticulous, perfectly controlled painting invites the viewer’s gaze to "decipher" the chromatic variations but keeps it at a distance. Unlike Rothko, who claimed to create a place where viewers are invited to enter, Chesnier's work, full of restraint, preserves itself, so to speak. 

In this palette of colors, a line seems to separate the top - always brighter - and the bottom, always darker - perhaps sky and earth. However, this imaginary line, which some call the horizon, moves as one approaches it. The viewer gets lost in this space that eludes fixed references, in this field of uncertainty where the authoritarian gaze gives way to the hesitant eye. 

André Breton wrote in 1941 about Yves Tanguy: "The appearance of Tanguy in the Neptunian light of clairvoyance gradually tightens the thread of the horizon that had broken. But with him, it is a new horizon, the one on which the landscape, no longer physical but mental, will establish itself." Is it this mental landscape that Claire Chesnier aims for?" 

Itzhak Goldberg 

No matter how much I move to the side, away from these images and back again, I cannot decide whether they are monochromatic variations of a single pigment or polychromatic hues that dilute, generate and scatter several others, and this undecidable problem offers a kind of revelation: there is no more hue, no more tint, the definition of chromatic tonality is transcended, there is only color, color that passes before me and meets me, that passes over the large sheets of paper, gliding, penetrating them, metamorphic without mutating, evolving. I perceive it as full and slow, expansive, and at the same time on the verge of disappearing, already ghostly. 

What happens in this use of color, in this oscillation that goes from the density of the pigment to a luminous cloud of a halo, leads to a shift to a different way of seeing, to the acceptance of detachment, of the disappearance of forms but also to the acceptance of undecidability, indeterminacy, unpredictability. My intuition tells me that the image is there, in the radiant thickness of this floating line, at this porous edge, at this changeable, versatile border between abstraction—I stand before movements, forces, impulses, currents, presences—and figuration—I stand before landscapes, clearings, skies, dawns, fires, perhaps twilights, I stand before the dew of a winter meadow, condensation in a whisky glass, an evening sea, a cloudy sky, a ghostly love. I stand before absence, before something that is happening and that I do not know. What happens to us when we disappear. Disappearance. 

Claire Chesnier remains at a distance, observing the emptiness, her language plays in the silence, clear, waiting, while she is a replica of her color, which enters into the whiteness of the paper, carrying it without forcing it, becoming one with the paper in the streaks that remain, the smoothness of a current, the suggestion of evaporation. 

We look, and it is like a conversation, like taking up a language: our eyes are our mouths, our movements are like sentences, and soon only time is left —the time of painting, which is the time of looking.... 

When does the word “patience” come to my mind? I begin to move and the pictures vibrate around us, fluttering in chromatic instability, almost the same, essentially the same, in this vertical format that is proportional to the body, or rather to the body of the artist, as she writes in Fragments d’une déposition1: “My height, my shoulder, the extent and fullness of my arm movements correspond to the dimensions of the paper. I cut it to my size—the size of a woman. The horizon of the frame is thus drawn in this perceived space, in my scale....” Images that suddenly seem to encompass her completely, to regain their character of portraits—self-portraits. 

I hear the word patience in this endless movement back to the paper, this bending of the upper body, this tension in the neck, this stretching of the arm, this letting go of the wrist. A subterranean tension that responds to the body, to pain, but also to pleasure. That repeats, starts again, returns, works to elicit meaning from the image, to reduce its complexity, to distill the smallest, most insignificant grain, in an effort to cancel out any motif, any intentionality. This persistence in painting. Patience as insistence, as resistance. Patience, silent and rebellious. 

When I think about it, I probably felt this word in connection with that of confidence, of trust, which comes to mind at the same time. Having confidence in painting, relying on it, completely, accepting it without hesitation; letting go of control and reaffirming one’s instinct.... And no doubt I understand it, this word, through that of alliance, which is also in my head. Patience in alliance with time, endurance. A willingness to merge with the flow of life, to make a pact with time, to desire what is to come—amor fati. That crosses landscapes, breathes, travels far. 

The sheets of paper are suspended, meaning is suspended, language is suspended, time is suspended, and the city pulsates around us as I discover this activation of abandonment—the impossible event that took place here. A painting of patience. 

1 Claire Chesnier, Fragments d'une déposition (forthcoming). 

Bibliography

Claire Chesnier, monographie, texts : Maylis de Kerangal, Pierre Wat, Molly Warnock, Claire Chesnier, Ed. JBE Books, Paris, France 

Fragments, dir. Camille Saint-Jacques, Éric Suchère, « Brisées » by Claire Chesnier, Coll. Beautés, Ed. L’Atelier contemporain, Strasbourg, France

2024

Sam Francis, dir. Pierre Wat, « La limite du ciel » by Claire Chesnier, Coll. Transatlantique, ER Publishing, Paris, France

Some of Us, dir. Marianne Derrien, Jérôme Cotinet-Alphaize, Ed. Manuella, Paris, France

2023 

L’Horizon d’un instant, Pierre Cendors, Claire Chesnier, Ed. L’Atelier contemporain, Strasbourg, France

Beautés, texts : Jean-Charles Vergne, Ed. FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

Beautés, dir. Camille Saint-Jacques, Éric Suchère, « Beautés » by Claire Chesnier, Coll. Beautés, Ed. L’Atelier contemporain & FRAC Auvergne, Strasbourg, France

Claire Chesnier - Les Jours, Semaine 03.23, dir. Philippe Piguet, chapelle de la Visitation, Thonon-les-Bains

Art & Essai, 2014-2020, dir. John Cornu, Ed. Art & Essai - Université Rennes 2 & cultureclub-studio, Rennes, France

2022

Le Promontoire du songe, texts : Jean-Charles Vergne, Éd. FRAC Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

2021

Mudhoney, Claire Chesnier - Denis Laget, textes Jean-Charles Vergne, Galerie ETC, Paris, France

Les 30 ans de l’Art dans les chapelles, dir. Eric Suchère, « L’épaisseur d’un reflet » by Claire Chesnier

Inspiré.e.s, texts : Lucile Hitier et Sarah Caillet, Centre d’art l’ArTsenal, Dreux, France

2020

Claire Chesnier, Le ciel aussi est un fracas, text :  Karim Ghaddab, Ed. Galerie ETC, Paris, France

5/5, Estèla Alliaud, Claire Chesnier, dir. John Cornu, Éd. Art&Essai - Université Rennes 2 & cultureclub-studio, Rennes, France

L’Art dans les chapelles, dir. Eric Suchère, « Le vent continuellement domine les yeux », by Claire Chesnier

La Besogne des images, dir. Léa Bismuth, Mathilde Girard, Éd. Filigranes, Paris, France

Un lieu, loin, ici, Antoine Emaz,Claire Chesnier, dir. Armand Dupuy, Jeremy Liron, ,Coll. Livres d’artistes, Éd. Centrifuges, Saint-Jean La Buissière, France

Peindre dit-elle - chapitre 2, dir. Julie Crenn, Annabelle Ténèze, Amélie Lavin, Musée des Beaux Arts de Dole, France

2016

Peindre n’est (ce) pas teindre?, Éd. Créations & Patrimoine, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France

2014

Avec et sans peinture, Ed. musée d’Art contemporain du Val-de-Marne (MAC VAL), Vitry-sur-Seine, France

Claire Chesnier - L’aire des aurores, dir. Léa Bismuth, Art Collector, Paris, France

Press

2023

L’Oeil, March, "50 artistes de la nouvelle scène française, Claire Chesnier" by Anne-Cécile Sanchez
"Claire Chesnier - Les Jours", week 03.23, text by : Philippe Piguet, Chapelle de la Visitation, Thonon-les-Bains, France
"Art Essai, 2014-2020", catalog, dir. John Cornu, Ed. Art Essai - Université Rennes 2; cultureclub-studio, Rennes, France
"Des mondes saturés", dir. Damien Bonnec and Charlotte Beaufort, « Le risque de la boue » by Claire Chesnier, Presse Universitaire de Rennes, France
"L’horizon d’un instant", Pierre Cendors and Claire Chesnier, Ed. L’Atelier contemporain, Strasbourg, France


2022

The Art Newspaper, May, L’objet de …, « Arnaud Laporte choisit 130221/140221 de Claire Chesnier » by Arnaud Laporte
Art Press n°497, March, « Claire Chesnier/Denis Laget - mudhoney » , by Julie Chaizemartin
Beaux-Arts Magazine, January 2022, « Claire Chesnier : traverser la couleur », by Maïlys Celeux-Lanval
L’Oeil, January, « Claire Chesnier, Denis Laget - en galerie » by Vincent Delaury
Télérama, February 14th, « Peinture : les 8 expositions à ne pas rater à Paris », Expo TTT, by Laurent Boudier
Revue Transfuge, January, « L’équilibre de la boue », by Aude de Bourbon Parme


2021

France Culture, November 10th, « Claire Chesnier », interview with Arnaud Laporte
« Une présence autre », exhibition text "Par espacements et par apparitions", L’Ahah, Paris, by Pierre Wat
Mediapart, December, « Claire Chesnier, la peinture révélée » by Guillaume Lasserre
Art Press, n°485 February, File « La Dé-Définition de l’abstraction », « Dialogue avec Claire Colin-Collin »
Art Press n°484 January, « The Painting People - Atelier Michael Woolworth Paris », by Erik Verhagen, Art District Radio, « A l’atelier #7 : avec la peintre Claire Chesnier », interview with Julie Chaizemartin, Les Apparences, episode 19, « Claire Chesnier », available on YouTube, interview with Thomas Levy-Lasne
Arts Hebdo Medias, October, « Claire Chesnier, Par espacements et par apparitions » by Vanessa Humphries
Paris Capitale, October, « Claire Chesnier, L’Ahah #Griset » by Anne Kerner
Slash, November, « Claire Chesnier, L’Ahah Griset, Paris » by Guillaume Benoit
Paris Update, November, « Art Angels » by Heidi Ellison
Les Pas perdus, « L’espace de la chute (Claire Chesnier, encore) » by Jeremy Liron

Interviews

2023
Interview with Philippe Piguet, exposition Les Jours, Chapelle de la Visitation, Thonon-les-Bains, France

2021
Interview with Maylis de Kerangal, L’Ahah, Cité Griset, Paris, France
A quoi tient la beauté des étreintes, table ronde avec Zrinka Stahuljak, Gaspar Claus, Jean-Charles Vergne, L’Ahah, Paris, France
Table ronde Art Press, La Dé-Définition de l’abstraction, with Romain Mathieu, Karim Ghaddab, Claire Colin-Collin, L’Ahah, Paris, France
Conférence Art Press, L’abstraction, with Romain Mathieu, Karim Ghaddab, Claire Colin-Collin, ESAD, Saint-Étienne, France
Interview with Claire Colin-Collin on abstraction, on the Art Press dossier (n°485), L’Ahah, Cité Griset, Paris, France

2020
L’oeuvre en question, interview with Vincent Dulom, available on YouTube, L’Ahah, Cité Griset, Paris, France

2019
Vitalité de la peinture, on Invitation by Thomas Lévy-Lasne, Villa Médicis, Rome, Italy
La peinture abstraite, on Invitation by Thomas Isabelle de Maison Rouge, les Dits de l’Art, Cabinet Danton, Paris, France

2018
Presentation of n°23 of Recherches en esthétique, Interview with Mathieu François du Bertrand, L’Harmattan, Paris, France
Invited lecture by Isabelle de Maison Rouge, les Dits de l’Art, Cinéma l’Arlequin, Paris, France

2017
Invited lecture by John Cornu pour l’Université Rennes 2, FRAC Bretagne, Rennes, France

2016
Peindre n’est (ce) pas teindre? Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Musée de la toile de Jouy, Jouy-en-Josas, France

2013
Rencontre des acteurs du marché de l’art : l’artiste, l’oeuvre et les autres, organized by the Syndicat National des Maisons de Ventes Volontaires (SYMEV) and the Jeune Création association, Mairie du 11ème, Paris, France

2012
La peinture abstraite aujourd’hui, with Pierre Wat and Emmanuel Van der Meulen, Galerie du jour agnès b., Paris, France

2010
Apparition Disparition, on invitation by Vincent Dulom, La Fabrique, Université Toulouse II Le Mirail, Toulouse, France