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As the fourth and last artist to exhibit in the new NUCLEUS project by Circle Culture Gallery, Julien Saudubray presents his work “Growing #28”. The French artist based in Brussels, is known for his unique approach to painting that revolves around layering and deconstructing the traditional elements of the art form.
You can find a full interview with the artist and curator below.
JOHANN VON HAEHLING: Julien, thank you for taking the time to discuss your participation in the Circle Culture Gallery’s series focused on the theme of “NUCLEUS.” The idea of stripping away distractions and presenting a single work of art in an otherwise empty gallery feels especially radical in today’s world. Could you tell us how this concept resonates with you as an artist?
JULIEN SAUDUBRAY: I totally agree , and I am very happy to participate in this project. I also think , especially in my practice that involves a lot of nuances , that we need time to look at things and create a connection with them. I deeply think that nothing in itself has an essence but it’s all about the context and you will not feel the same if you go through a whole exhibition or if you stay in front of one painting for an hour with no other distractions.
In my own experience, when I was in France and working as a student as a guard in Louvre museum, I loved this idea to go through the big gallery of the Italians with all these masterpieces without looking at them and focus on just one painting I wanted to see. It was an idea that I didn’t want my eyes to be parasitized before getting in front of the thing I wanted to see.
JVH: The exhibition focuses on a central work of art, presented in isolation. How do you feel this heightened focus changes the way viewers interact with the piece?
JS: As I said , it s all about the context. In economics Adam Smith created this concept of rarity comparing the latter and the diamond, I think it works the same for painting. If you have just one object to look at, it makes it more precious in a way.
Off course it’s great to visit an entire exhibition of an artist to get into his mind and practice, but this proposal of a single work deals with something related to the phenomenon in a phenomenological way, something that appears to you and constructs you without any preconceived notion.
JS: It’s a hard question to answer in a few lines, I think there is a double movement. We have definitively lost a way to look at things, but it has been transformed in something different. Maybe we are able to analyse images faster today. As a painter, I can see if a painting is strong with just a glance and sometimes I am really disappointed when I see a work IRL that I have seen on social media first.
To me the question is not so much about fighting this direction because it’s there already and many painters are doing painting for Instagram. To me it’s more about finding a way to propose a work that mislead the look and deals with the temporality of the eye.
JVH: Your work often explores subtlety and nuance. How does this tie into the exhibition’s philosophy of NUCLEUS?
JS: The way I work is really about time, being focused on the accidents of the lines and materiality of the painting. I never have a preconceived idea in mind when I start, and I would like the visitors to appreciate this stratification of gestures and failures.
Finally the image doesn’t interest me so much, i would say that the viewer would have to complete the painting.
I consider it as an invitation to exercise your eyes to be more accurate, and it works for me as well!
A painting that I consider done, is a painting that doesn’t end, so to speak. It’s just a crop on a bigger breath.
JVH: In this context, what role does simplicity or do dissolving figures play in your artistic approach, and do you see it as a form of resistance to the current cultural and aesthetic climate of excess?
JS: I don’t think that is a conscious and critical approach. It took me many years to find a painting I am comfortable with and be strong enough to be able to stay away from aesthetics of the time.
I think that if you work in that way, feeling coherent with yourself, people will feel it.
Maybe it appears to people as a critical position, perhaps abstraction will be fashionable again in 5 years and i will be fashion as well…
You have to be aware of your time and I look at young painters very often, but to built a strong practice you have to stay away at some point, keeping your bubble to protect yourself and not falling into the tendencies of the time. Painting is a very long journey, and I always have P.Guston in mind, who worked his way not considering what his abstract painters friends were thinking when he went back to the figure.
I could also go back to the figure at some point, it just has to be a necessity.
JVH: A more holistic and free question: I see spirits in your paintings, a translucent view on human energy. Where do you get your inspiration?
JS: It has something to do with energy off course, as the hand is active on the canvas and transfer a dynamic of the whole body into the bi-dimensional surface.
I use simple shapes like circles and ovals because it reduces the problem and lets me focus on the power of a line, which is very complicated by the way.
I would say that what leads me when I paint is very real and physical. For example I try to « represent » the movement of a growing flower, not in terms of figuration but more in terms of an organic movement.
So yes I would say it’s about movement, light , vibration of the colors, human and non-human energy as DNA is common to trees, human beings, flowers or animals.
To paint is a way to feel connected to everything and escape from your mind that controls your feelings.
It’s all about lying to yourself all the time and necessarily believing it, otherwise you can’t paint.
