Isabelle Lamrani Profile Picture

Isabelle Lamrani

Paris, France
Artist (Painting, Drawing)
Born 1965

I never know in advance what I'm going to find when I start a painting. In fact, that's precisely what I come looking for: a process at the end of which—if all goes well—I will be surprised myself. For me, there is something eminently joyful about finding my hands in the paint, in front of a painting that is still nothing and will perhaps become something, without it being possible for me to know yet when, how, or what.
Painting is therefore, first and foremost, a freedom for me. A childlike freedom, capricious, insolent, a moment stolen from life during which neither contingencies nor social reason can dictate my conduct or function. It is a moment of freedom. It is also a place. A framework. A chosen space, which is above all a field of experimentation in which I can freely play with materials and colors, establish a dialogue between them, organize an encounter.
The choice of abstraction stems quite logically, it seems to me, from this desire, this need, to create with the canvas an absolutely free place and time. I paint without wanting to paint anything. Without technical difficulty. Without a model. Even without inspiration. Nothing slips between the painting and me, the one painting it. The hand-to-hand combat is physical and plays out in the moment, an incomprehensible moment, sometimes repeated a hundred times, and which, on good days, gives birth to a painting.
For, if the goal remains mysterious, the approach is perfectly premeditated. I like to exhaust what I work on, to push the possibilities of a color or a material to the limit, to explore its transparencies, its brilliance, its opacity, its way of drying or flowing, of disappearing or resisting erasure. The ink often pre-exists the painting. It's there first, beforehand. And my work consists of both covering it and revealing it. Sometimes, moreover, it disappears completely. But often, it is tenacious. It clings. It survives. Something remains of it, which becomes my motif, and which I must then highlight. The trace is worthy. It has earned its place, its status. In this, it finds its own identity. A reason for being. A reason to be shown.
Thus the painting appears. As if without my knowledge. As if my intervention had only been an accompaniment. And I am the first to be surprised by what—ultimately—I find there. A balance. An energy. A movement escaped, which had escaped me. The result is almost completely beyond me. At best, I can decide when the work ends, decide when the slow evolution of the material deposited on the support should stop. But after that?
Afterward, the painting will live its life as a painting. I will no longer have to occupy any space in it. I will look at it as the always unexpected result of this moment that I will have granted myself, offered, as a luxury indispensable to the rest of life, the ultimate state of this empty place that painting—through me—will have been able to cover, discover, and...

Discover contemporary artworks by Isabelle Lamrani, browse recent artworks and buy online. Categories: contemporary french artists. Artistic domains: Painting, Drawing. Account type: Artist , member since 2007 (Country of origin France). Buy Isabelle Lamrani's latest works on ArtMajeur: Discover great art by contemporary artist Isabelle Lamrani. Browse artworks, buy original art or high end prints.

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