Bertrand Fournier: Pretty death

The aparent oxymoron of the title 'pretty death' is put into question through Fournier's distinct perspective. In the western world death has secured its position as the ultimate, inescapable tragedy of life. This series is born as a response to the collective trauma and reactions of the past two years. As medicine has evolved and cured so many deadly ills, our perception of death has also evolved. While it may always be inevitable, the idea that it can be delayed renders its occurence tragic.

Yet in a myriad of ways, death is our constant companion. Fournier's intuited geometric forms and colourful shapes are the perfect medium to convey such an abstract concept. His body of work feels very personal: it is composed of his daily life and environment, thoughts and events that are rendered abstract and fueled by his childlike amazement for the banal. Part of what makes viewing Fournier´s paintings so intriguing is that despite the simplicity of the shapes, there is a distinctive sense that an enigma is lying behind. For death to be the subject of this new body of works may seem an extreme development, and yet his colours and shapes play with this concept beautifully: for what looks like a flower can also be a gravestone, or even be something as trivial as a table. His works in many ways are an exercise of pareidolia. He plays with our mind's compulsion to make recognisable patterns and figures from meaningless visual cues. Through repetition, figures erupt from his masses of colours - simple shapes that carry a heavy symbolic load. He plays with the repetition of these indefinable forms as a humorous comparison between beauty, tragedy, and banality.

For the artist, death has a triviality to it which he finds fascinating. 'Pretty death' is the concept born from this curious view: the everyday, trivial nature of death in its many forms can also be beautiful. 

About the artist:

Born in île-de-France, 1985, Fournier’s artistic training is entirely self-taught and began in his early 30s. His practice of ‘suggestive abstract’ demonstrates the profound interest in internal compositional organisation and colour combinations. Part of what makes viewing Fournier´s paintings so intriguing is that despite the simplicity of the shapes, there is a distinctive sense that an enigma is lying behind. A constant state of showing and hiding. Figures suddenly erupt into assembled piles of colour. These figures are directly readable and yet carry a heavy symbolic load. Bertrand Fournier partly lets us see where he is going with the thought and partly wander off in our own thoughts. 

Bertrand Fournier: Pretty death

Exhibition: 3 - 23 February 2022

Yusto/Giner Gallery. C/ del Barquillo 25, 28004 Madrid.