Neither figurative nor abstract, the paintings of Sébastien Frère should be seen as a wide, rich experience that shows a range of feeling drawn from the disciplines that he has made his own during his career. His sure hand, a gift from calligraphy, the large shapes with different brushes, the discreet colors, a technique learned from ceramics and other hands-on work, starting with print-making. Sébastien Frère produces work that absorbs all this expertise, illuminating the world of signs. The motif, the myth, the story are all there in visible signals. All that is left is the dynamism, the basic energy, the essence of the image. The big canvases of the Signes exhibition, presented by the Centre d’Études Catalanes Paris-Sorbonne – Solide, Bride and Orient Express – are splendid examples of this feeling and dynamism that are integral components of the artist’s work. These paintings recall a familiar story, described in two or three ideograms, à la chinoise. The title of Orient Express tells us so. Signs that move from the personal to the universal are interconnected by the combination of the characters and their place in the whole. Let us not forget the meshing of luminosity, opening up the color, softening and blending it into the painting. Creating the ellipse, a door is opened to a mythic and poetic world where, in just a few brush strokes, the light, the values, the material effects and especially space are the central elements of the composition and the modeling of its meaning.
If at first glance the work seems to be composed of multiple referents, leading to a mysterious vision of stylized reality, further study shows it to be completely original with a very strong sense of its own truth. Completely aware of its own life force, the work sends out a signal – the sign of absolute strength, intimately universal and irrevocably personal.

Eric Forcada
Traduction Pamela Knight