CONTRE-NUIT

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cover: detail from Cosmonaute, 63" x 63" opposite: Après l'horizon, 47" x 74¾"

Gisant 63" x 76¾" | 32 | China Town 51" x 63"

4 | Le gant 51" x 63" Insider Information 51" x 63" | 5

6 | Cadillac 59" x 76¾" Style 59" x 76¾" | 7

8 | Parking 51" x 51" | 9

For Bard, the simplest of all subjects, be it a shoe, a leg, a torso, a foot, a dog or a face takes a tragic and magnificent

dimension. He manages to translate all his intimate emotion into a two-dimensional art work; each painting is an end-

less exercise of composition, rhythm and struggle and the use of multiple layers of oil accentuates the feel and dynamic

mood of all his paintings. Francois Bard gives a part of himself in every canvas. The horizon-the vast limiting of human

experience is a phenomenon that has fascinated Bard. The horizon draws a line between here and not-here. Between

day and night, good and evil, us and them.

Bard takes inspiration from the existentialist novel, “The Tartar Steppe.by Italian novelist, Dino Buzzati. It is the story of

Giovanni Drogo, a young army officer posted to a remote garrison, living out his entire life standing guard, watching a bar-

ren desert for an enemy that never comes. The enemy is dreaded, yes, yet eagerly anticipated, for a battle would bring

glory, finally giving purpose to his mind-numbing existence on the steppe. Drago watches and waits as we do viewing

Bard’s larger than life canvases.

And so Francois Bard gives us guardians, as well. They are the central figures of his art: ordinary people who have become

protectors, demigods who watch and wait, standing between us and the unknowable limit. They are looming icons,

canine and human, torsos and heads-stoic, silent but not unfriendly. They stand guard in the hard desert light and deep

shadow. Above all, Bard’s people are silent. This is fitting for gods who stand watch for us. Yet Bard’s imagery exists in

the strong company of words. He frequently inscribes text in graphic style, but these are not mere titles or captions. The

words are counterpoint, conceptually deepening, sometimes confounding. A friendly dog becomes ferocious. Blinding

sunlight becomes sacred. Death becomes nocturne. Bard’s words evoke the distant place, the day, the night, the forgot-

ten, the dream, the opposing forces on either side of the limiting line. They underscore the silence. Bard, however, is

still a humanist. He lets it show with occasional humor and it appears in the obvious affection with which he paints his

dogs. It appears in the frankness with which his people stand. Bard’s subjects are serious and dignified, but somehow

comforting. For they are performing important work, guarding the edge of the world.

Bard’s paintings can be described as ‘edgy.’ There is a dark, urban quality to his paintings that evoke both a sense of danger

and of loneliness and alienation of modern, urban life. He achieves this not only through the darkness of coloration and

much of his subject matter, but also by the isolation, even abstraction of his subjects. Bard not only favors the close-up,

he often paints fragments: a man’s head, a woman’s legs, a man’s feet, a cigarette butt on the sidewalk. His subjects are

invariably shown waiting, alone, but waiting for what or for whom? He is also known for his paintings of people with

their dogs and curiously, the perspective is from the vantage point of another dog and Bard’s dogs are always alert, on

edge. There is a freshness to Bard’s paintings that are particularly impressive due to a paucity of sentimentality and lack

of being cliche.

10 | Le silence des songes 63" x 76¾" Cosmonaute, 63" x 63" | 11

12 | Campers 59" x 76¾" Plateforme 76¾" x 98½" | 13

14 | No Man's Land 51" x 51" | 15

The characters painted by François Bard call out to us. Anonymous, feminine figures, coun-terfeit cops or genuine gangsters, we find ourselves faced with a scene that has taken place and whose protagonists seem to be awaiting our testimony. Bard's work calls us as witnesses. From "A Burial at Ornans" by Gustave Courbet to Luc Tuymans' evanescent canvases showing intrigues in the Belgian Congo, the entire history of painting is summed up by the ability to witness and wonder at the scene described to us.

Confronted with Bard's works, we are invited to offer explanations. Foreshortened characters, silhouettes in close-up, zoom-ins and other optical dolly shots are techniques belonging to the cinema - that other great media of popular imagery - and reused here by the painter. A silent focus on a bold scene interrupted by our sudden intrusion. In reality, it will not change now. The few exhibits are presented to us like a rebus puzzle. The sense of expectation is tangible, it is up to the onlooker to complete the scene. From the detective novel to the news item, popular literature too constantly tells us stories of the fringes of society. In this instance, a skillful painting taps into a narrative that is imagined but common, in part, to each of us.

In Dino Buzzati's novel "The Tartar Steppe", to which the artist often makes reference, Lieutenant Giovanni Drogo waits, behind the sublimely useless ramparts, for the arrival of hordes that will never descend on this space filled with absence and illusion. Fort Bastiani remains that bastion, irrelevant and therefore impregnable. Bard's paintings have that same sense of expectation. The scene has been set, something violent has happened, something tragic perhaps, and everyone is waiting for the action to continue. There will be no final applause in these half-played out scenarios. The expected hero - the viewer of these paintings - will resolve nothing in these truncated stories.

The paintings are very powerful, intrusive even. We are called upon, in an intense and forceful way: the action unfolds, the protagonists line up before us, hands clenched in the expectation of an interrogation that will never come. The moments depicted here give rise to fears, perhaps even hopes and yearnings. And so in this atmosphere, even the simplest scene takes on a strange character, disturbing in its banality.

16 | Le bain du prince 76¾" x 59" Le bain du prince 76¾" x 59" | 17

Faces, when painted, are anonymous and shown head-on, in the style of the Düsseldorf school of German photography known as "the new objectivity" in which each individuality is reduced to a reference number, while the staging for the action harks back to the French "decisive moment" school of photography initiated by Cartier-Bresson. Through these dif-ferent ways of choreographing, the painter highlights by various means the fact that each of us could be caught up in the nets of destiny: that combination of randomly accumulated circumstances. Like officer Drogo who gives in to romanticism or to a false notion of him-self and turns down the exemption certificate and his means of escape, only to find himself trapped in the hourglass of Fort Bastiani. A hero on whom nothing depends for a fate that is too human and has no means of return.

Could it be that? The smile of the artist, shown in his self-portraits, seems to laugh at our vanity and so give in to our curiosity. Looking is not a neutral action.

We are thus taken aside and in spite of ourselves become this hero of a scene for which we could well provide the evidence. Each point of view will, without any doubt, be different, and our descriptions, too quick or even awkward, will be our burden. And we can be sure that, as observers, we will have everything to lose.

In the dialog then between viewer and painting, we might hope for a clue, a solution, or a statement. The artist informs us, in the same way as Lieutenant Drogo and his colleague who "fell silent again, realizing that this conversation separated them from each other", that our encounter with the painting will plunge us into even more turmoil and raise even more questions. Behind this painting's proactive facade, there will in fact be few answers for us. With its beautiful, dark lines, the distant horizon looks full of promise. But it is empty.

We ourselves could be François Bard's hero: that very singular hero who, although expected, has no particular ability and is even reduced to futility and superfluity. He will find no solutions here. We are in the same position as the victims depicted here. Perhaps, like Giovanni Drogo, we should study these paintings and "in the darkness, although there is nobody to see us, smile" before being caught.

Eric Mircher. February 2014

18 | Le chien 63" x 63" Homme assis 76¾" x 59" | 19

20 | Le sac jaune 51" x 63" Jérôme 51" x 51" | 21

EDUCATION AND AWARDS1990 Premier prix, Prix Paul Belmondo

1988-1990 Casa Velasquez Madrid, Spain

1977-1980 Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris

SOLO EXHIBITIONS2013 Mazel Galerie, Brussels

2012 Si Loin, Galerie Olivier Waltman, Paris

2012 Not Guilty, Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, New York City

2012 Not Guilty, Axelle Fine Arts, Boston

2011 Open Bard ,Mazel Galerie, Brussels

2010 Big Guns, Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, New York City

2009 Une saison en forêt , Galerie du Fleuve, Paris

2007 Centre d’Art contemporain de Montluçon, France

2006 Le Carmel, Tarbes, France

2005 Galerie du Fleuve, Paris

2004 Stephany Hoppen Gallery, London

2003 Galerie du Fleuve, Paris

2002 Galerie Samagra, Paris

2002 Art Miami, Galerie du Fleuve, Miami

1998 Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris

1996 Visart, Paris France

1995 Centre Culturel, La Maison du Boulanger, Troyes, France

1992 Visart, Lille France

1991 Visart, 20/20, Paris

1984 Galerie du Passage, Troyes, France

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS2013 Bertrand Delacroix Gallery, New York City

2013 London Art Fair, Galerie Olivier Waltman, London

2013 Drawing now Paris , Mazel Galerie, Paris

2012 Art Gent, Mazel Galerie, Gand, Belgium

2012 Art Paris, Galerie Olivier Waltman, Paris

2012 Galerie DX, Bordeaux, France

2012 Waltman Ortega Fine Art, Miami

2012 Lille Art Fair , Mazel Galerie, Lille, France

2012 Happy birthday Marilyn…. 50 ans déjà , Mazel Galerie, Brussels

2012 Tensions, Mazel galerie, Brussels

2012 Axelle Fine Arts Soho, New York City

2011 Biennale d’Issy les Moulineaux – France

2011 Scope Artfair Miami, Waltman Ortega Fine Art, Miami USA

2011 Art London, Galerie Olivier Waltman, London

2011 Art Elysées , Galerie Olivier Waltman, Paris

2011 Chic Art Fair - Mazel Galerie, Paris

2011 Lineart, Mazel Galerie, Gand, Belgium

2011 Remix, Mazel Galerie, Brussels

2011 Zoo O logis, Mazel Galerie, Brussels

2010 19, Mazel Galerie, Brussels

2010 Galerie du Fleuve, Paris, France

2009 Art Paris, Galleria Forni, Paris

2008 FORM London, Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, London

2008 Art Karlsruhe, Galerie du Fleuve, Karlsruhe, Germany

2007 Salon de Vitry, France

2007 Art DC, Washington, Galerie du Fleuve, Washington

2007 Biennale de d’Issy les Moulineaux, France

2007 FORM London, Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, London

2006 Galerie Aida Cherfan, Beyrouth Liban

2006 London Art Fair, Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, London

2006 Art Miami, Galerie du Fleuve, Miami

2005 Centre d’Art Contemporain de Montluçon, France

2005 London Art Fair, Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, London

2005 Fondation Coprim, Paris

2005 Biennale d’Issy les Moulineaux, France

2005 St’Art, Strasbourg, Galerie du Fleuve, France

2004 St’ Art, Strasbourg, Galerie du Fleuve, France

2004 Le Carmel, Tarbes, France

2004 Art London, Stephanie Hoppen Gallery, London

2004 Galleria Forni, Bologne, Italy

2003 Centre d’Art Duatre Coelho, Portugal

2003 L’art Emmêlé, Paris

2002 Stephany Hoppen Gallery, London

2002 Salon Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Séoul Corée

2001 Salon Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Luxembourg

2000 Salon Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Paris

2000 Salon de Montrouge, France

1999 Centre Culturel, Abidjan Côte d Ivoire

1999 Cloître des Billettes, Paris

1997 Cloître des Billettes, Paris

1996 La Réserve D’AREA , Paris

1996 Salon de Vitry, France.

1996 Fondation COPRIM, Paris

1996 Galerie Pascal Vanhoecke, Paris

1992 Exposition du prix Belmondo, Paris

1992 Visart, Paris

1991 Chapelle de la Sorbonne, Exposition Prix du Crédit Agricole, Paris

1990 Casa Velasquez, Madrid (Institut de France) Spain

1990 Sala de Pallarés, Léon, Spain

PUBLIC COLLECTIONSJackye et Curtis Finch Jr. Collection, About Face, Arkansas

Kit Kemp, Soho House, London

Goldsmith, Geneva

Dan O’Neal art collection, New York

Crane’s Collection, New York

Angelo M Collection, Milan

Ralph Lauren Collection, New York

Crosby Hotel, New York

Spruce Restaurant, San Francisco

Ralph Lauren Collection, Paris

BIBLIOGRAPHY2013 François Bard, Monographie

2008 BARD François , Monographie, Editions SFEIR

2007 Hybrid par Alains Rosenbach. Editions des Riaux.

2007 5 ans de Azart par Gérard Gamand.

2007 Editions Azart « Peinture et photographie » par Jean Luc Chalumeau. Editions du Chêne

FILM2006 Un promeneur silencieux dans le monde : Documentaire sur le travail de François Bard, Olivier Delahaye, 22 Production, Odelion Films

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back cover: Paysage Américain 76¾" x 98½"

Paysage Américain 76¾" x 98½"