Guillaume Pinard is back

The phrase is a little exaggerated, definitely hackneyed, but at least, it means what it says. It suggests an epic dimension, gives the man the bearing of a romantic hero, supposes a role to be acted possibly with style.

The last time Guillaume Pinard occupied Gallery Anne Barrault, he was sounding his legitimacy as a painter, beyond his interdisciplinary profile. The painter in itself, the painters within him: the amateur, or the most learned one, the one who knows as well as the coarsest. That was the call, at the time. Humble, conscientious, he faced his practice, as if taking up a challenge, getting his hands dirty. Capable of this, smart for that, incapable of drawing this line, awkward with that color…

An exhilarating experience which today makes him put aside the question of being legitimate or not, for some time only. Freed from this burden, Guillaume Pinard can readily pace the multiple, wild and steep countries of his personal painting, in order to draw a map of it very meticulously. There is the aim. By playing the discreet conquistadors or the careless adventurers, as you like, he sheds, as usual, his images he combines or links. He arranges them, like markers on a background to be filled, an area, a map to be soiled, drawing relations he assumes obvious. From one point to the other, from one line to a subject, he draws. He hurries, as much as possible, and avoids stopping too brutally. Matters are bound, one color brings a tint, a frame leads to a format. The painter and the cartographer are the one and same face that Guillaume Pinard tries to show, diligently, efficiently. He has a role to play.

“La Diligence”, the title of his new exhibition, calls to mind, of course, this promptness to carry out the work, to do a nice quick job, at least as best as possible. A feverish unrestrained hurry. The title evokes too the stagecoach in westerns, which allows its passenger to travel across bare, hostile, unique lands. To achieve this aim, Guillaume holds the reins of his introspections. To estimate his painting, he knows he must go by such or such place. And never mind the way or the direction, since only the movement matters.

Guillaume Pinard is a French artist, born in 1971. He lives and works in Rennes.

In this way, I began very early to consider pieces of art as doors and I can confirm that it is at their threshold that I still try to stand. - Guillaume Pinard

He graduated from the École des Beaux Arts of Rennes. He is a forewarned observant of art and cultural artefacts of which he scans appearances and hidden meanings. He willingly defines himself as a drawer, but he also composes with several mediums such as painting, sculpture or moving images. He explores very eclectic styles. Over last decades, and through a work of copyist, he has appropriated himself masterpieces from the past. Nevertheless, he looks to the future by means of illustrated fictions.

His work was shown in solo exhibitions such as in 2015 : Du Fennec au Sahara at la Chapelle du Genêteil of Château-Gonthier and Un Trou dans le décor in Quartier of Quimper. Also : Royal Iris at anne barrault gallery in Paris (2014) ; Vandale at BBB in Toulouse (2013) ; Trésor at Centre d’Art of Cajarc (2012)...

His works have also been presented in collective exhibitions in various places such as Le Portique, in Le Havre; the FRAC Limousin, in Limoges ; The Beaux-Arts Museum of Rennes ; La Station, in Nice ; or in Atlanta, at the Atlanta College of Art Gallery.

He is the author of AMOR (2015), Un art sans destinataire (2012), Le Clou sans tête (2008). Several art critics and journalists have written about his work, among them Emmanuelle Lequeux, Ken Johnson, Bénédicte Ramade, Timothée Chaillou, Antoine Isenbrandt, Julie Portier, Brigitte Ollier, Louise Grislain…