Exhibition of the French artist Gérard Stricher in the Castle of Ladoucette to Drancy (France)

inception gallery
Jun 16, 2016 1:30PM

Gérard Stricher is no stranger to contradiction, and that’s partly what makes the man and his work so interesting.

Although he was born to a family of artists and used to paint and draw since his childhood, he decided to study engineering.

His career in industry, developed internationally, gave him the opportunity to meet a lot of people:  his vision of the world is profoundly marked by the discovery of new horizons.

L'oracle, Oil on canvas - 146 x 114 cm - 2016

L'oracle (Detail) Oil on canvas - 146 x 114 cm - 2016

Gérard Stricher was born in Sarrebourg, France, in 1948. Self-taught artist, he made his first works during the 1970s. It is only in the last ten years, nourished by his life experiences, that Gérard Stricher began to create again: he now asserts himself, liberating body and spirit, in a consciousness of gestures that proceed between unrealism and phantasmagoria. The clear and bright colors are assumed, challenging the phantasmagorical shapes that are interlocked, indented, transcended… We are struck by the evidence of the result.  

Jean et ses amis, Oil on canvas - 160 x 160 cm - 2016

Between reality and abstraction, the fingers and the hands of the artist apply the paint directly on the canvas or sometimes with a palette knife. The composition takes shape, enlivens the painting which suddenly seems to be looking at us. Reality becomes uncertain. Are they abstract compositions? Expressionist portraits? Imaginary landscapes? Gérard Stricher is spontaneous and complex, and so is his work: evident and exuberant.

Le Grand Sud, Oil on canvas - 97 x 130 cm - 2016

Famous names come to mind: Bengt Lindström, Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, or, of course, Van Gogh. Just as these artists, Gérard Stricher gives priority to colors that are here victorious. Not without insolence, they literally radiate on the canvas.

Esmeralda, Oil on canvas - 160 x 160 cm - 2016

It is as a free man that Stricher creates and expresses himself, free and generous; these same feelings also appear through his artworks.

Pierre Bour, director of the Château de Ladoucette

Castle of Ladoucette - Drancy (France)

inception gallery