Samuel Richardot was born in 1982. He lives between Paris and Auvergne.
He is represented by the Balice Hertling Gallery, Paris.
Over the years Samuel Richardot's paintings have moved away from the figurative aspects of his first creations. Recognisable figures such as plants or objects, ceding their place to “hollow” or, “by default”, forms. The most characteristic procedure of his recent paintings is to spread heavily diluted paint within the very clearly framed zone (using a “stencil” system) of a canvas placed flat. This technique creates a strong contrast between the random arrangement of the painting that reinforces the process of drying and the geometric outline in which it is inscribed. The elements give us the impression of having been cut out of another canvas and organised alongside similar fragments. Other types of intervention, such as the use of a can of spray paint, give the same impression. Without a beginning or an end, the lines drawn with the spray paint also seem taken from a pre existing composition. The artists causes the spectator to walk back the path of the development of the artwork, by imagining the successive steps, of which only “witnesses” or “samples” remain.
It is interesting then, to note the paradoxical temporality of the artwork. The drying time of diluted paint is for example, a lot longer than that of a line painted using spray paint. The succession of actions operated on the canvas furthermore supposes a temporal sequence that reminds us of the linear flow of narration. The paintings, in their final state, make different temporal realities live together by placing them on the same level. The artist suggests layering effects, but when seen up close, all of the forms are painted directly onto the canvas. The artworks of Samuel Richardot thus invite us to confront our different perceptions of time: its aspect, as fragmentary as it is linear, its heterogeneous and homogenous nature. Without being narrative, its paintings bringing us ahead of any narration, to events, to elements from which a story is made, and from which new life takes form.
Théodora Domenech
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