Arnaud is a self-taught artist whose passion for painting developed at a very young age. It was not until he moved from Paris to New York at the age of 25, however, that he began a serious exploration of color, line, figure, and abstraction.
After studying with Jan Wunderman at The Art Students League, his first group show was at P.S. 122 in 1997.
In December 1998, Arnaud developed what would become his personal style of abstraction—variations of color fields using oils and a palette knife.
Arnaud has had several solo shows in New York, Paris and throughout Japan, and his work has been in numerous group shows.
His paintings are in many prominent private collections in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Fiji, Turkey, Lebanon, Brazil and Mexico.
To view earlier work, click here.
Artist Statement
Learning a language, the alphabet, vocabulary, expressions, composition, the color of a language, its texture, its idiosyncrasies, its nuances, is quite similar to learning the language of painting. It is the challenge of attaining fluency and achieving communication and communion.
Composing a canvas is not unlike the way one composes one’s life; a journey along paths, a decision at each crossroad, and the experience of meetings of chance that orchestrate the course of one’s life.
The choice of color, its application and juxtaposition, allows for an openness, a light which comes from the depths of the subconscious.
I deeply love painting. The true painting of Rembrandt, Turner, Van Gogh, Monet. The supreme universal language, the true emotional message, defying time and space. And also, contemporary painting in which we can identify ourselves thanks to Soulages, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, Giacometti, Frankenthaler and Kline.
I love riding the invisible line, so dangerous, where the painter finds that fleeting moment of equilibrium to work his canvas.
It is a constant fight between the canvas and the artist. A misplaced line, an inadequate color, and the canvas is lost. If, by chance, the artist takes advantage, the result becomes catastrophic. But when the communication is total, when the union is complete, the painting becomes emotionally charged. Pleasure and happiness, so ephemeral.
言語を学ぶこと、文字や語彙、表現や文章、色合いや質感、独特な表現や微妙な言い回しなど、は絵画表現を学ぶのとたいへん似通っている。それは潤滑に相互理解を深め交流出来るようにしようという挑戦である。
一枚のキャンヴァスを構築するということは、自身の人生を構築するようなものと言えないこともない、何故ならその行程は、その時々の岐路での決断、人生行路を構築してくれるかもしれないチャンスとの出会いだからである。
色彩の選択、使い方や並べ方、が自由さと潜在意識の心の奥底から出て来る光を映す。
私は絵画を深く愛する。真のレンブラント、ターナー、ヴァン･ゴッホ、モネ。
最高の国際共通言語であり、真の感情伝達であり、時空を超えている。そして又、スーラージュ、デクーニング、ポロック、ロスコ、ジャコメッティ、フランケンセラー、クラインの現代絵画の中に、有難いことに我々は自分を見出すことができる。
私は大変危険ではあるが、目に見えない線に乗ってゆくのが好きだ、そこに画家は束の間の平衡を発見しキャンヴァスに創作する。
キャンヴァスと画家は常時戦っている。間違って引いた線、そぐわない色、失われたキャンバス。もし、アーティストが優位に立ってしまうと結果は酷いことになる。しかし、対話が成立し一体になった時、絵画作品は感情的充足を得て完成する。喜びと至福ははかない。
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“...[Arnaud] creates elegantly solemn oil paintings of a darker, heavier experience. The surfaces of these paintings seem thick with paint, like tweed tapestries of labor-intensive strokes. They create a uniform field which holds the painting’s surface in complete equality at every point. Behind this plane, a shallow pictorial space of great compression develops, and this entire space is one of perpetual nervous tension, pushing and pulling in a tight arena. Fundamentally monochromatic, the paintings are in neutral hues or in brooding reds, blues, ambers. They are strong, serious, resolved presences. Arnaud is self-taught, and his mentors include Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Giacometti, de Kooning, Pollock. His interest is to capture the feeling of alienation and isolation. The act of creating art and the phenomenal existence of the art object, glowing, breathing in perpetuity, gives hope.”
