Jean Soyer (painter)
Biography
Jean Soyer is a graduate from the École supérieure des arts et industries graphiques, where he learned the trades of engraving, lithographing and graphic designing. Living near Paris, he has an international reputation. He is president of the Salon Violet, a contemporary art fair. Astounded by Nicolas de Staël's works, deeply impacted by those of Georges Mathieu, and finally transformed by the reading and works of Fabienne Verdier, he immerses himself in these influences to forge a very personal style, sometimes explosive and sometimes relaxed, always intensively expressive.
Artistic approach
The painting of Jean Soyer (oil painting) seems to draw strength from the outburst of the elements. Earth becomes rock, water changes into froth, air turns gust, fire is lava, and ether makes itself Qi — the vital breath. The colors intensity, the abundance of contrasts, the generosity of the spatula, the balance — or sometimes the calculated lack of — of the compositions, the calligraphic gesture, the reliefs of the material, the amplitude of the mouvements, which expand way beyond the surface of the canvas, everything contribute to convey the onlooker in a deluge of deep emotions.