PASSAGE #6

This is a painter of figurative abstraction. What does this mean? That art translates reality? A vision of the world? Was it because he lived in the United States for 25 years and saw New York as a great monster that the encounter took place on canvas? Yes, probably. A big monster on one side and light on the other. The painter in the middle somewhere fixed on the stretched linen the influence of the one on the other and the other way round, or how the light finds its way into the space built and shaped by the steel beams, the concrete and the glass walls. How it penetrates, sneaks in and settles before disappearing behind a facade, a pitiless building corner, a fading sun. The forest of buildings in Manhattan in the rain, for example, gives a double idea of light reflection: the verticality and its immense play of reflections which, from the bottom to the top, structures the viewer's gaze; and the horizon melted into a wet street. For Frédéric Choisel, the rain over New York softens the city, which is illuminated with an almost human dimension. A romantic monster, another Venice, new sparkles. A vision of the world, we say. Technically, Choisel's work extends the contrasts of the megalopolis. The light is there, but the sun is permanently hidden. The blacks are deep like backyards or dark alleys (on paper, a mixture of alcohol-based varnish - shellac - and charcoal). The colours are a mixture of oil and pastel for the freshness of the tints and the rendering of emotions. Result: Frédéric Choisel reorganises our perception of reality. His lines draw the eye upwards. The body rises towards the light. Our heads are in the air. J.P Delest