Les ménines (2018) Painting by Caroline Cavalier

It is said of Caroline Cavalier that she belongs to the non-elitist movement of narrative figuration. That it participates in a form of popular art, said to be within everyone's reach, which plays on spontaneity, fun, dreamlike, simplicity and letting go. May be. To be honest, I'm not really sure she's playing anything. The popular perhaps comes from the first vocation of the artist, who wanted to be a cartoonist before entering the Beaux-arts de Perpignan. If his paintings are within everyone's reach, they are nevertheless full of hidden symbols and motifs, in light blue lines on an azure background. The spontaneity is chiseled, the playful is spiritual, the dreamlike is metaphorical. Simple patterns accumulate into a complex whole. Letting go seems close, but is always pushed back by a detail, an additional element, another meaning, fleeing more than hidden. Caroline Cavalier's work stems from dualism, from paradoxical and at the same time strangely coherent cohabitation. The sky facing the sea, the fish facing the birds, brown and blonde hair, painting and sculpture, fine arts and primitive art. This duality is found in his line, with a permanent double level of reading in the composition, which only requires a few steps forward or backward to be perceived. The artist hides patterns within his painting, in the swirls of the waves or in the shape of the clouds. The only elements that are not counterbalanced by an opposite are the eyes, omnipresent and systematically turned towards the viewer. The works look at us, which pushes us to look at ourselves. His work is constructed rather than composed, in a palpable way, with nails and glue. This gives ideas a tangible force, more practical than theoretical. It brings about an encounter, through a direct assembly of materials, supports and techniques.
Caroline Cavalier's work evokes magic, in the sense of popular mythology. His canvases, with their bright colors and intriguing rather than disturbing characters, evoke a marvelous but strange world where ogres and fairies, good and bad, rub shoulders.

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1971
• Artistic domains: Works by artists with a certified artist value, Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Certified Artists Professional Artist Contemporary French Artists