Cyanine | Adrien Jutard

Adrien Jutard’s recent work is a kind of return to his primary vocabulary. Until the 2010s, the artist developed a language based on two intertwined axes. A very assertive, very hard drawing, with a clear charcoal line, even though the forms are shattered, dented and imperfect in the sense that they are all part of a research process. Alongside this, he has developed his own very personal language of colour, by enclosing pure pigments diluted between solidified layers of resin. The colour remains almost frozen in its liquid state, which means it is alive and has an incomparable depth. The two expressions were very much intertwined around 2015, before colour won out and gradually swallowed up the drawing. The form remained, full, diverse and complex, but charcoal was becoming increasingly rare and less visible. The colours were also more numerous, brutal and aggressive.

The current exhibition is marked by a strong return of the line, dancing or spider-like, tracing curves that are like skulls, embryos or philosophers’ stones. The colour behind has never been so deep, but it feels channelled and meditative. Sometimes the gesture, like a desire to contradict everything, gets in the way and tries to blur the unity. The series includes many works on paper, a medium long abandoned by the artist. It’s a further sign of a return to basics, to scales.
Yves Guignard, Dr in art history