Paul Raguénès, born in Lyon, France in 1964, and lives and works in Roches de Condrieu, Isère. Raguénès makes voluminous paintings on wood that he has pre-treated with bitumen or tar; the paintings at first glance appear monochrome.
The artist applies several layers of pigment, which he has bound with oil, to his wooden background. He almost invariably prefers red and blue and various nuances of these shades.
However, the impression that this means he paints in monochrome would be deceptive: it would be restricting, invalid and futile to glance superficially at them and to put them down as that. Behind the monochrome surfaces, there slowly unfolds to the patient viewer a complex of colors.
Each component of the pigment incorporated into the work creates its own play of light and shadow, in an interplay with other pigments and depending on the perspective. With his object-like paintings, Raguénès displays transitions, transformations and differentiations: in his work, he demonstrates to us how light influences color.
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