Beethoven (d'après Antoine Bourdelle) (2023) Printmaking by Pierre Pentchev

Pierre Pentchev explores the representation of the figure until, sometimes, its disappearance. Through his mastery of drawing and painting, he s his peers and takes his place in the long lineage of artists who, since the beginning of humanity, have questioned Being and the universe. The dialogue he establishes with his predecessors, the links he establishes with the world are available to us who look at his works. Pierre Pentchev probes timeless mysteries, the subject fades to better capture the delicate and mystical energy that he perceives.

At the end of 2019, he inaugurated a series in gouache on paper which he continues actively. Its title, “Apparition,” evokes what begins to be, to manifest, to become visible. As if emerging from a distant past, human forms with rough outlines seem to emerge from rich material backgrounds, where the blues of the sky, the greens of the water, the oranges of the fire mingle, signs of a time distant where men observed the cosmos with fear and fascination. They finally manage to extract themselves from the primordial magma and come towards us.

From this original matrix, these faceless bodies emerge on the painted surface, a light line of gouache, darker, the silhouettes suggest, nuanced whites illuminate barely sketched postures exalting the anatomy – bent knees, folded arms, curves highlighted by the straightness of a spear or a cane. Yet no narrative is imposed, the freedom of gesture and form is communicative, the viewer absorbs with emotion these distant reminiscences of mythology and art history – Greek sculptures, baroque putti, paintings by Greco, Cézanne or Odilon Redon. Under the brush of Pierre Pentchev, the ellipse is a force which becomes joyful and transcribes a certain form of the sacred.

Marie Akar

“Apparition is the reassuring and luminous state of full consciousness in which we could abandon ourselves, when faith offers itself to us. Not religious faith, but a sort of Beethovenian, Promethean faith, which would make man better. I have always been convinced that art is one of the means that manages to crystallize this phenomenon, and that this is precisely its vocation – to offer this faith to man. » Peter Penchev

• Nationality:
• Date of birth : 1973
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Contemporary French Artists