”No more tricks, fox!” "
"Anyway, nothing can be simply erased, and all of which disappears, traces remain". Jean Beaudrillard.
Is art contemporary? Richard Colin’s practice skillfully dodges the weight of that bag of tricks approved by the hackneyed label often referred to as "contemporary art". That balloon, harbingers were filling so impatiently with liquid nitrogen to have their rating increased that prices skyrocketed. At 26, Richard Colin, is not after his. That is why, he purposely gets away from the “swamp”, at the very place where happens the disgusting, pointless and piteous collusion of agents, gallery owners, conservators and Captains of industry, above all else concerned about speculating on the rating of their greedy protégés. He on the contrary softly advances his work - I was about to write pleasantly - with a mix of self-confidence and kindness, combined with the natural style of his Métis features as well as his physical presence which makes him right away so attractive to whoever comes closer to him.
The late paternal grandfather of the young man used to be a painter in his days. He also used to work as a firefighter, a real firefighter who during his spare-time enjoyed applying paint on the canvas. The grandparent married a Polish woman. His mother's family on the contrary is from Martinique. Was that crossbreeding the very underlying source of constant hybridization, which has been guiding his research, from sculpture, drawing, painting, woodwork, pottery, portraits to still life works, from depictions of humans to depictions of animals – and especially depictions of the one we rightly or wrongly like to see in the mirror: the ape?
Richard Colin, contrary to many of his peers, does not rely on that kind of preconceived and well-argued speech to further his “work”, or to justify the “consistency” of his career path, no need for conceptual “ready-to-use” answers aimed at convincing easily. He does not install anything, does not theorize or conceptualize – moreover he is no talkative man. Since his teenage years, he has kept drawing and got supported for that. At 21, he passed the entrance examination of the Fine Arts of Paris. He then tried to find himself for a few months, but without (according to him) producing anything worth of interest to his professor, Emmanuel Saulnier, and then showed him some kind of Louise Bourgois’ style spider, he made only with paper clips put together. Then, he thought out loud: “Art is denied”. Thanks Lacan. Rapidly, he took a step back and moved on.
Richard Colin, found himself lamenting that “at school”, as is customary to say, there was still a clear division amongst professors to the point that it was said they fell into 2 types: artist or technician. Then, one of Paul Valery’s phrases adorning the pediments of the Palais de Chaillot comes to our minds, alluding to “the artist’s prodigious hand, his mind’s equal yet opponent”, whose poet pointed out that “the one is useless without the other”; a phrase contemporary poets should take inspiration from…
As a student, he joined Emmanuel Saulnier’s sculpting work group. Then, François Boirond’s for two years in which he had been improving his knowledge of painting techniques. At the side of Patrice Alexandre, he learnt modeling. That way, Richard Colin developed a variety of artistic skills following a noticeable logic, through formal (and even physical) handling of the material. One day, while visiting the Great gallery of evolution at the Natural History Museum, he chose to model a chimpanzee with wax. The ape representation thus becoming a sketch of his work, and later used in a lot of different ways. Perhaps because humans have always kept gazing at their reflection, and wondering about the mystery of that particular species more than any other, but also because more than any other animal of the Creation, apes have been immersed in our amazed look, within the untouched Eden of a nature left to fend for itself, (absolute precondition for its survival provided they are not kept in captivity). At the bottom of a large-format painting on paper showing a front view of a big staring macaque with a stylized primeval forest in the background, Richard Colin, wrote the last words of dying poet Saint-John Perse as an epigraph: ”No more tricks, fox!”. Human animals must act in the most upright way.
Request of principle and demanding personality altogether have made the artist commit to coming closer to those Beaudrillard called the “mirror people” – whose remote origins are reflected in their eyes. I remember that during a conversation, Richard Colin was kindly making fun of those art students painting with an open Picasso catalog on their lap. Art has its history, of course, but it is precisely about making more history, catching up with it, and even leaving it behind in some way – and not following in the footsteps of well-known artists with an attitude of paralyzed respect. During his fourth year as an undergraduate art student, a study trip experience in French Guyana (not far from the land of his ancestors) managed to change significantly the esthetic appeal of his works. “Degré sept” was rightly named after 7 practitioners working in collaboration under the supervision of a few artists. Richard Colin returned twice to the Caribbean region meeting Native American people, he got friendly with the “noirs marrons” Saramakas community – (as we know) so called after their tendency to “maroon” that is to say to flee from their condition of slave and not because of the color of their skin. In the forest, he helped them build a giant drum – since those native people are also good musicians. More recently, he was recalled by a metropolitan woman named Maryse Buira in order to work on a “kimboto”, a sacred tree for Native American people which was uprooted by a cyclone and underneath which the widowed woman had piously placed the remains of her dead husband. In 2015, Richard Colin got back to Martinique so as to sculpt modelled on those old traditional Saramakas canoes called Jbebii Boto, and based on pocket versions sold to tourists, a 13 feet-long boat, cut from a solid chunk of magnolia wood – that way revivifying a dying out culture, “Tembé’s” elaborate ornamentation sculpting techniques.
Is art neo-ethnic? According to Richard Colin, and despite the fact that he grew up in Gennevilliers and Argenteuil, in the Paris suburbs, rather than blending his works into the huge Western iconographic repertory, he chose to opt for a more inspiring, uncertain and even “uncivilized” quest concerning that “age-old” population we originate from and whose raw traces can still mysteriously be found in Arcadia where he brought to light archaeological layers of more or less old traditions and hardships, but mixed and long-lasting ones, such as those which can thanks to him be seen late in life extracted again from their original tuff.
Excelling as a portrait painter, draughtsman with an accurate and refined pencil stroke, peerless colorist (extremely rare qualities in a sector obviously stricken with decay and mediocrity), Richard Colin embodies all the talents of a plastic artist who does not usurp the name of artist in the sense that for him, his ideal of authenticity remains the basis as well as the guarantor of the artistic gesture ethic. As for the rest, Richard Colin has got the talent and thus time for himself
-Remi Guinard
Is art contemporary? Richard Colin’s practice skillfully dodges the weight of that bag of tricks approved by the hackneyed label often referred to as "contemporary art". That balloon, harbingers were filling so impatiently with liquid nitrogen to have their rating increased that prices skyrocketed. At 26, Richard Colin, is not after his. That is why, he purposely gets away from the “swamp”, at the very place where happens the disgusting, pointless and piteous collusion of agents, gallery owners, conservators and Captains of industry, above all else concerned about speculating on the rating of their greedy protégés. He on the contrary softly advances his work - I was about to write pleasantly - with a mix of self-confidence and kindness, combined with the natural style of his Métis features as well as his physical presence which makes him right away so attractive to whoever comes closer to him.
The late paternal grandfather of the young man used to be a painter in his days. He also used to work as a firefighter, a real firefighter who during his spare-time enjoyed applying paint on the canvas. The grandparent married a Polish woman. His mother's family on the contrary is from Martinique. Was that crossbreeding the very underlying source of constant hybridization, which has been guiding his research, from sculpture, drawing, painting, woodwork, pottery, portraits to still life works, from depictions of humans to depictions of animals – and especially depictions of the one we rightly or wrongly like to see in the mirror: the ape?
Richard Colin, contrary to many of his peers, does not rely on that kind of preconceived and well-argued speech to further his “work”, or to justify the “consistency” of his career path, no need for conceptual “ready-to-use” answers aimed at convincing easily. He does not install anything, does not theorize or conceptualize – moreover he is no talkative man. Since his teenage years, he has kept drawing and got supported for that. At 21, he passed the entrance examination of the Fine Arts of Paris. He then tried to find himself for a few months, but without (according to him) producing anything worth of interest to his professor, Emmanuel Saulnier, and then showed him some kind of Louise Bourgois’ style spider, he made only with paper clips put together. Then, he thought out loud: “Art is denied”. Thanks Lacan. Rapidly, he took a step back and moved on.
Richard Colin, found himself lamenting that “at school”, as is customary to say, there was still a clear division amongst professors to the point that it was said they fell into 2 types: artist or technician. Then, one of Paul Valery’s phrases adorning the pediments of the Palais de Chaillot comes to our minds, alluding to “the artist’s prodigious hand, his mind’s equal yet opponent”, whose poet pointed out that “the one is useless without the other”; a phrase contemporary poets should take inspiration from…
As a student, he joined Emmanuel Saulnier’s sculpting work group. Then, François Boirond’s for two years in which he had been improving his knowledge of painting techniques. At the side of Patrice Alexandre, he learnt modeling. That way, Richard Colin developed a variety of artistic skills following a noticeable logic, through formal (and even physical) handling of the material. One day, while visiting the Great gallery of evolution at the Natural History Museum, he chose to model a chimpanzee with wax. The ape representation thus becoming a sketch of his work, and later used in a lot of different ways. Perhaps because humans have always kept gazing at their reflection, and wondering about the mystery of that particular species more than any other, but also because more than any other animal of the Creation, apes have been immersed in our amazed look, within the untouched Eden of a nature left to fend for itself, (absolute precondition for its survival provided they are not kept in captivity). At the bottom of a large-format painting on paper showing a front view of a big staring macaque with a stylized primeval forest in the background, Richard Colin, wrote the last words of dying poet Saint-John Perse as an epigraph: ”No more tricks, fox!”. Human animals must act in the most upright way.
Request of principle and demanding personality altogether have made the artist commit to coming closer to those Beaudrillard called the “mirror people” – whose remote origins are reflected in their eyes. I remember that during a conversation, Richard Colin was kindly making fun of those art students painting with an open Picasso catalog on their lap. Art has its history, of course, but it is precisely about making more history, catching up with it, and even leaving it behind in some way – and not following in the footsteps of well-known artists with an attitude of paralyzed respect. During his fourth year as an undergraduate art student, a study trip experience in French Guyana (not far from the land of his ancestors) managed to change significantly the esthetic appeal of his works. “Degré sept” was rightly named after 7 practitioners working in collaboration under the supervision of a few artists. Richard Colin returned twice to the Caribbean region meeting Native American people, he got friendly with the “noirs marrons” Saramakas community – (as we know) so called after their tendency to “maroon” that is to say to flee from their condition of slave and not because of the color of their skin. In the forest, he helped them build a giant drum – since those native people are also good musicians. More recently, he was recalled by a metropolitan woman named Maryse Buira in order to work on a “kimboto”, a sacred tree for Native American people which was uprooted by a cyclone and underneath which the widowed woman had piously placed the remains of her dead husband. In 2015, Richard Colin got back to Martinique so as to sculpt modelled on those old traditional Saramakas canoes called Jbebii Boto, and based on pocket versions sold to tourists, a 13 feet-long boat, cut from a solid chunk of magnolia wood – that way revivifying a dying out culture, “Tembé’s” elaborate ornamentation sculpting techniques.
Is art neo-ethnic? According to Richard Colin, and despite the fact that he grew up in Gennevilliers and Argenteuil, in the Paris suburbs, rather than blending his works into the huge Western iconographic repertory, he chose to opt for a more inspiring, uncertain and even “uncivilized” quest concerning that “age-old” population we originate from and whose raw traces can still mysteriously be found in Arcadia where he brought to light archaeological layers of more or less old traditions and hardships, but mixed and long-lasting ones, such as those which can thanks to him be seen late in life extracted again from their original tuff.
Excelling as a portrait painter, draughtsman with an accurate and refined pencil stroke, peerless colorist (extremely rare qualities in a sector obviously stricken with decay and mediocrity), Richard Colin embodies all the talents of a plastic artist who does not usurp the name of artist in the sense that for him, his ideal of authenticity remains the basis as well as the guarantor of the artistic gesture ethic. As for the rest, Richard Colin has got the talent and thus time for himself
-Remi Guinard
EXHIBITIONS
Personal exhibitions
Group exhibitions
Awards/Scholarships
Publications
- July 2015: "Esprit planète" inauguration, Rennes
- November 2013: Saulnier's studio exhibition, (final study degree), Fine arts of Paris
- May 2012: «Scaphandre», Six-Huit, Paris
- December 2012: personal exhibition at Six-Huit, Paris
- May 2012: exhibition at Stoke Bar, Barcelona, Spain
- June 2011: Saulnier's studio exhibition, (first cycle degree), Fine arts of Paris
- June 2010: personal exhibiton at Saulnier's studio, Fine arts of Paris
Group exhibitions
- June 2015: "Forest Art", artist redisent in Martinique, prunings in Montravail's forest
- March 2015: exhibition «louées soient les oeuvres» at la favela chic, Paris
- September 2014: artist redisent in French Guyana, «Kimboto résonne»:
- June 2014: artist redisency in French Guyana, « Kimboto sonne»: realization of prototypes sets and furniture for the library toy of Mana
- July 2012: «Désir de liens», exhibition, Saulnier's studio
- May 2012: «Jardin extraordinaire» Génitoy's parc, Bussy Saint-Georges
- February 2012: exhibition «peintres sur seine» at Six-Huit, Paris
- December 2012: exhibition « je vous imagine tel que vous êtes», galeries gauche et droite, Fine arts of Paris
- October/November 2011: exhibition «les voyages de la terre», CROUS gallery
- 2011: open house Fine arts of Paris, Palais des études
- 2011: open house Fine arts of Paris, modeling's studio
- 2011: «Techné», CROUS gallery
- 2010: exhibition Boisrond's studio, galeries gauches et droite, Fine arts of Paris
- 2010: exhibition modeling's studio, galeries gauche et droite, Fine arts of Paris
- 2010: exhibition Saulnier's studio, galeries gauche et droite, Fine arts of Paris
- 2010: «diffraction», galerie gauche et droite, Fine arts of Paris
- 2010: «ébauches», exhibition at Palais de la découverte, Paris
Awards/Scholarships
- Forest art, 2015
- FEAC, 2014
- Scholarship aid higher national diploma of applied arts, 2013
- Price Paris young adventures, 2011
Publications
- Catalogue of graduates 2013, Edition Fine arts of Paris and ministry of culture and communication, 2013
- Catalogue «jardins extraordinaires», 2013
- Edition « Degré 7 en Guyane, rencontre avec les potières amérindiennes Kalin’a», 2012