BETWEEN THE LINES

The inspiration Artist is based on an alternation of figurative and abstract art. For spring-summer 2022, Brigitte and François have concocted a minimalist collection for you based on two new paintings from the work of Pola Carmen, artist discovered at contemporary art fairs “ New Realities " And " Comparisons » a few years ago in Paris. 

 « Not possible » is the name of the overall series from which they extracted 2 pieces. Association of irregular lines punctuated with accidents, gaps, breaks: the work is mainly accomplished with oil pastels, often in single color, or sometimes in a few shades. The expression, which may seem primary, is also very current. It is as if the artist were starting from the frescoes of the Lascaux caves and going back to Jackson Pollock, famous American painter of the 1time part of the 20thIt is s., known worldwide for his abstract expressionism. We have the feeling that Pola Carmen a 'digested, kneaded, molded'  the entire period and genres to extract its quintessence.

His way of saying that painting is the art of exploring what its components (canvas, color) are capable of. His gesture to show us that there is something to experience, something possible.

Here yellow lines, a lemon yellow, whose liveliness is pushed to its peak.

We think of these rapeseed fields, of spring splashing with light.

Let her talk to us about it :

« … The point is the search for a balance, that of the line and that of the color, that of tracing and that of covering. The starting point is a color and a material, then comes the line, which in a conquering way imposes its monochromy. With the line, an entire irrigation system is put in place. With color, it’s a second skin that covers the canvas. In a world that overwhelms us with images, I suggest a break.

My work is material work. I use the repetition of lines, traces, successive sequences. These consecutive layers organize the painting when the light adorns it and modifies it throughout the day. I mainly use non-colors, beige whites, gray whites, yellow khakis, pale blues, intense blacks. I express myself in large formats. It suits my way of painting and it also allows you to immerse yourself in the painting and I hope to get through it..."

We collected other testimonies :

François Barré - Former President of the Center Pompidou

« … Here, it will be the line which becomes a figure... A territory is covered, woven by fragile interlacings, tight, fleeing the horizontal, carried by a hand walking, crossing, revealing a sort of large figure with the features of the same color. The oil pastel gives the line a density and a color which, echoing and playing with the monochrome background, creates unity and order. Time passes through these stitches, leaves a way of escape. Recovery is never complete. The world is larger than the canvas, one responds to the other and expands. Two intersecting traits can initiate a destiny. No one would be able to stop this trace and this passage..."

Anne-Pascale Richard – Visual Artist

“…Since these “Possibilities” give us the freedom to open the horizon, let's take advantage of it to experience immense pleasure in seeing the invisible, in reading between the lines...

Perhaps sometimes a frail ladder towards infinity, sometimes a window in the gray, a mysterious staircase, sometimes a strange hopscotch linking the earth to the traced sky on a huge lithographic stone.

Suddenly resurgence... The hypnotic lines take us back in time, almost silently immersing us in the childhood of the chalk gesture, the blackboard as much as the school notebook with blue and pinkish lines... »

Official Galleries and Museums - Stéphane Gautier

On the occasion of the 75th edition of the Salon Réalités Nouvelles dedicated to the promotion of abstract painting, in Paris from October 22 to 24, 2021, the Officiel des Galeries & Musées selected the artist as the winner of its prize. Pola Carmen.

“…Of apparent simplicity the work of Pola Carmen is much more than a juxtaposition of verticals and horizontals to form a grid on the space of the canvas left blank. It is a work of balance, full of nuances where the harmony of the line takes on all its importance. “Putting two lines side by side, for me that’s the pinnacle,” she confides. Thus appears on the canvas a whole network of horizontals and verticals which seem vibrant. Depending on the more or less light accentuation of the line, harmony is created, the plot is woven, and the work becomes hypnotic.

Yet, Pola Carmen, is not a Penelope who would weave her web to hold us captive, quite the contrary, she invites us to go beyond, to see behind what is happening there, by varying the density of her lines. Sometimes a gap is made, a gap in the line appears, and the line becomes dancing. His point is that of the harmony of the line, of the right space between two lines, of the correspondence of verticals and horizontals united in the same vibrato. More or less tense or loose, the lines of Pola Carmen are like the strings of a musical instrument that lead us into multiple variations and resonate in our eyes. The work of Pola Carmen is a work on accuracy, on the primordial gesture of drawing which is that of placing a line. An effective trait, true…”

 

 

Pola Carmen, born in 1953, lives and works in Rémalard-en-Perche, in the countryside of the regional natural park, in the Lower Normandy region in the Orne department (61).
She studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tours, then ceramics at ENSAAMA. Pola Carmen also attended the Pascal de Vautibault sculpture workshop in Paris.

 

Continue exploring POLA CARMEN's work:

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018
Gallery Jacques Levy - Paris
2016 
Gallery Jacques Levy - Paris
Galerie Zeuxis - Paris
2011
Gallery House of Culture - Metz
2009
Pierrick Touchefeu Gallery - Sceaux
2007 
Theatre Gallery - Cachan

COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS 

2020
Gallery Papier d'Art - Paris 3
2019
Art Papers Gallery - Paris 3
2017
Amélie Art House - Paris 9
2017
Axelle Gaussen Gallery - La Rochelle
2017
Abstract Project - Paris 11
2016
Abstract Project - Paris 11

2008 to 2019
New Realities 
2014
New Realities Outside the Walls - Beijing
2008 to 2016
Art in Capital/ Comparisons/Lyrical Abstraction group
2012
Comparisons Outside the Walls - 2008 - Contemporary Art Biennial