BENOÎT TRIMBORN

Q: Could tell us more about the title of your exhibition? 

The crucial question to be resolved by an artist is that how to succeed practicing art while not neglecting an aspect of research. Indeed, the risk of success is artistic impoverishment [...] Naturalism is the dominant character of my work, but my intention is to seek a path towards abstraction by making the pictorial writing rawer and minimalist. I tend to free the color from strict figuration. Thus, my work is often located at this border between the realism of textures (even a photographic impression) and the raw character of painting, reduced to the essential. It is for me to respect the textures and the colors (except for the canvases with non-naturalistic colors), to give an accurate impression of the physiognomy of nature. Hence the title “Did you say naturalism? “.

Q: Therefore, nature is the main part of your work, but these landscapes that you paint do not entirely seem apart from the activity of the humankind. What traces does man leave on your landscapes?

I generally do without the human figure in my painting (apart from a few counterexamples with a series on fishing in 2017-18…). Basically, this absence is surely the expression of a certain loneliness. Some of my paintings are directly inspired by landscapes generated by agriculture, mainly rapeseed fields, wheat fields, etc. It is a way of looking for beauty where you least expect it. This is perhaps another recurring aspect of my painting: transcending banal scenes, whether entirely natural or impacted by human activity.

Q: Your work is very precise, and kind of minimalist, why this choice?

The penchant for minimalism not only engenders a greater openness of mind, but also a larger place given to the imagination and the projection of the viewer. All this contributes to a certain universality of the landscapes; thus forests, meadows, seas can evoke diversity. A detail, a light, a shadow, all those things that one might think are insignificant and which are almost nothing and yet, when you focus on it, the “almost nothing” can become the “almost everything” of the painting. This is very interesting for me, yet inexplicable.

For instance, a breeze on the water can locally modify the reflection of a lake: forming a stratum that stretches. Wind on the water; it is almost nothing, it is a detail, but by the way it is treated, it can become the subject of painting. There is therefore a great proximity between the detail, this almost nothing, and the subject of the canvas. This approach makes me think of this expression: “Less is more”.

Q: Could you define your artistic research? What are you looking for?

In my opinion, artistic research aims to arouse emotion by imposing as little as possible on the viewer, for example an autobiographical story or a political message. The aim: always more humility to get closer to the beauty of nature. It is a bit like the link that exists between a musical composition, the score of a composer, and the performer. The interpreter, through his sensitivity, brings the composer’s message to life. In this way, as a painter, I always have the score of nature in front of me, and therefore, I try, with my technique and my sensitivity, to bring a piece of nature to life on the canvas. 

Q: How do you spend a day in your studio ?

An ordinary day is regularly filled with my piano practice. A balance is found between these two passions, music and painting.

It is a chance to practice music, it defines me a lot; being cradled in a passion that forms a balance in the practice of painting, it allows me to start with something that I know. Sitting down at the piano, playing, is really something that helps me a lot in painting. Sometimes I accompany musicians, singers, clarinetists, violinists, something that also helps to maintain a social life because artists are often exposed to their loneliness.

Q: What are your influences ?

The artistic movement I feel the closest is romanticism, however it is a very vast concept which expression depends on the country. Let us specify, therefore, that it is above all, the German romanticism’s spirit that moves me most. In particular, the work of Caspar David Friedrich, which is an influence that I fully assume, even in 2022. Whether this influence leads to a painting that is going to be fashionable, resonating with the contemporary world, is not at all my concern. This painter could have gotten along with the composer Franz Schubert who is also an important reference. Finally, I also like to evoke the links between my paintings and the music of that time, but also with the so-called “impressionist” music; the French school of which Claude Debussy is the main protagonist.