Catherine Danou and Artist: writing a collection

The visual artist starts right away when it comes to projects. When ARTIST knocked on her door, Catherine Danou was attracted by the transposition work of Brigitte and François. What would happen to her two paintings “chosen” to be juxtaposed, recomposed and transcribed into a women’s ready-to-wear collection?

 The brand’s serious reputation immediately dispelled any fear. The excitement of seeing the outcome was the strongest, especially as it brought the artist back to his personal history: a stylist father who notably created textile prints, grandparents who owned a fabric store... Everything explains!

ARTISThad therefore spotted two paintings, two visuals extracted from a series of prints as if repeated to infinity, almost similar and so different.

 

The prints and embroideries recite the colorful signs, discreetly detail them, skillfully develop them in their collection

 “AU FIL DE LIN” presented from January 26 to February 4,

 

On clothes, the patterns depict this random succession of lines or small spots.

The stitching of the paint represents the stitching points, the appearance of a remesh recalls the structure of the weave or the weave of a knitting.

In this silent writing, we hear the rhythm of the pictorial interpretation, its reiteration of lines, the cadenced renewal of small drops, the multiplication of traces.

 Catherine Danou writes in paint on a prodigious Nepalese paper, squared, armed with hemp strings. Paper and paint become one. One does not go without the other. The material of one feeds the material of the other. The artist strips it, hollows it out to leave evidence of passages. She ties or unties the fine cords. It sometimes freezes them in one of the boxes, but it often allows them to push the border… The mesh fluctuates according to memories, sensations, the perception of the moment.

 

 His work is largely inspired by the cuneiform writings of Mesopotamia placed on clay tablets or on wooden tablets from Easter Island.

In this tradition, it is with the help of a calame or reed cut into a bevel that she scratches the precious parchment. Just like it can be with a brush, more classic, or with your finger!

Opposed to white or black backgrounds, the montage of colors is deciphered at the heart of its imaginary language, a contemporary spelling linked to the vestiges of an ancestral alphabet.

It is probably no coincidence that the visual artist, who initially trained as a lawyer, contrasts the lightness of her work with the administrative heaviness that she experienced well. Here again a path made of crossings, choices, constraints and freedom. There remains a visceral attraction for the tables of the law, the rigorous and framed inscriptions. The precision of its characters, the compartmentalization of its symbols, the nuances of its monochrome or multicolored palette emblematize this universe whose boundaries Catherine Danou enjoys pushing back. Set a framework but be able to step outside of it.

Over the years, the artist's plastic research speaks a simpler language, evoking more stripped-down gestures. The more demanding work dialogues with the simplicity of beauty, or the beauty of simplicity, like his personal path oriented towards the essential.

 

Catherine Danou is a French painter who admires Rothko, minimalism, and loves black.
She has always painted but since the year 2000, perpetually, inspired by the history of art and man.
She divides her life between the island of Oléron in her main workshop and Paris where she has the privilege of a secondary workshop.

 Find all the latest news from Catherine Danou on Instagram catherine_danou and on Facebook.

 The artist regularly participates in personal and group exhibitions,

Exhibitions and fairs, in France and Europe.

Currently permanently represented by Amélie Maison d'Art – Paris 6^e - the gallery will offer a focus on his work in March 2024 and will exhibit it at the same time in its branch in New York (USA). www.amelie-paris.com

In Germany, a museum has just purchased several of his works and is planning several events for 2024-2025.