Planisphere2006–2007
M405 2007, 40 cm
acrylic on medium
Galerie Lavignes Bastille
To discover lava in extinguished fire, water from the seas transformed as clouds, the massing of air in a tornado. It is to see also, man return to dust.
Then night obliterates all, so morning can return and light manifest… the earth is reborn through the beauty of color, which transforms life.
Gray holds in memory the fleeting illusion of passing seasons. Disappear or appear… does one ever know?
Art is the trace of time.…” CLAUDE BELLEGARDE: LE CERCLE GRIS DES COULEURS 2007
GÉRARD XURIGUERA « EXHIBITION PLANISPHÈRE » CATALOG PREFACE, GALERIE LAVIGNES BASTILLES, PARIS 2007 (EXTRACT)
An established artist, although not widely known, this solitary painter has chosen now to share his vision of our terrestrial and celestial hemisphere: Planisphere.
Therefore a question arises : how do we examine this body of work without preconceived ideas or prior memories? Let us put aside chronology. Firmly in the present yet focused on the future, this work is vibrating with life. Is it not also, simply very close to daily existence… to the fleeting moment?
Bellegarde nevertheless, could be categorized as a classic of abstraction stripped of any provocation. If this term was not so misleading, we could speak of a Zen approach, which indeed presided at his debut. However, this subject lies elsewhere, in another perspective and one which rejects all assimilation.
This new adventure began two years ago with the series Gray-light. The color does not disappear but rather multiplies through its rarity and its resonance. At the zenith of a long and prolific journey, traced through the power of color, Bellegarde, a friend of Pierre Restany and Yves Klein, reinvents his personal rainbow within an array of circular paintings... "Planisphère".
