Vincent Bioulès at Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France

Co-founding member of the group Supports/Surfaces, co-organizer of the historic event “100 artistes dans la ville” (“100 Artists in the City”), Vincent Bioulès (born in 1938) has been engaged in a deconstruction of painting, in order to better return to the art, having acquired a maturity and a dazzling mastery of color. The Musée Fabre in Montpellier devotes a magnificent retrospective to this enfant du pays. It is an event of which L’Officiel Art is happy to be a partner.

Claiming to have discovered the Musée Fabre at the age of 7, Vincent Bioulès has never really stopped frequenting this emblem of the city of Montpellier where he was born. Fascinated by the Languedoc littoral, he has surveyed these places at will. “I have never stopped being faithful to what motivated me, to this initial landscape, in order to preserve a particular predilection for the emotion that I have always felt there, to think that it was there that I had discovered the pleasure of painting.” Rich in magnificent collections of ancient art, the Musée, through beautiful and intelligent programming, works for a wide variety of audiences in order too explore both the contemporary scene and its intersections with modern art. It has devoted itself to exploring the work of Vincent Bioulès since the 1950s, right up until his last works. Two hundred pieces are thus present in the exhibition, and they tell of a lifetime devoted to painting. Landscapes, nudes, and portraits reveal the constancy of his approach and his infinite games with color: “I like colors in the same way as I like musical instruments. If I had written music, I would surely have written string quartets, but I would have liked to write grand, very colorful symphonic pieces, because I am passionate about the sounds of the instruments, and I collect colors as if I were collecting sounds” the artist declares. Drawings and paintings, abstract or figurative works, large formats or delicate sketchbooks, thus construct a journey wherein the visitor, struck by the lifeforce of these works, wanders through a “disappearing” world.

“Vincent Bioulès, Chemins de traverse”, June 15-October 6, Musée Fabre, Montpellier.

From left to right, from top to bottom: Vincent Bioulès, La Tourette I, 1994-95; oil on canvas; 130x162 cm. Photo: Christian Palen. © ADAGP, Paris, 2019. Vincent Bioulès, self-portrait from the series “Je suis, tu es, vous êtes, ils sont, ou la leçon du temps et de l’amitié,” 1990; oil on canvas; 195x130 cm. Photo: Musée d’art moderne de Céret/Robin Townsend. © ADAGP, Paris, 2019. Vincent Bioulès, La Place d’Aix, noire. Hommage à Auguste Chabaud, 1977; oil on canvas; 190x250 cm. Photo: Frédéric Jaulmes. © Musée Fabre de Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and ADAGP, Paris, 2019.