Agnès Bouche Barbare lives and works in Paris. She creates stunning original works from a unique and subtle combination of wood, oil and pigments. Each piece originates from a poem, a quote or a sensation — this message vector, echoing the visual, opens a second layer of meaning. The interplay of intersections and the juxtaposition of colours, paired with the sobriety of abstraction, generate a rhythm, an almost musical movement.
After passing her entrance exam at the Fine Arts School of Paris, she attended sculpture classes at the École Boulle — where wood became her favourite material — and studied Art History at the École du Louvre and plastic arts at the Charpentier Academy. She travelled throughout Europe for twelve years, residing primarily in Italy and Denmark, her practice shaped as much by French creation as by the rigour of Nordic design.
Back in France, she dedicated herself exclusively to painting, joined the Maison des Artistes and became, in 2009, a member of the Ateliers d'Art de France. Selected in 2013 for the exhibition «Revelations» at the Grand Palais, she showed twenty of her works at the Palais de Tokyo in 2014.
The studio — Paris
With a depth of 2 inches, Agnès's works merge painting and sculpture, ranging in size from 16 to over 120 inches. Made from wood chosen among different species — oak, beech, pine — each piece is cut, sanded and transformed before receiving successive layers of pigments and mediums.
The Material picturale devient charnelle : c'est dans l'abandon et la maîtrise, le défini et l'éthéré, que ses mains se délient. Matité et brillance, ombres et lumières se répondent, transmettant l'impulsion au mouvement.
Chaque œuvre est élaborée à partir d'un poème, d'une citation d'auteur ou de textes écrits par l'artiste. En écho aux tableaux, ces pensées induisent une double lecture. Certains idéogrammes, lettres ou mots d'origines diverses — sanscrit, japonais, hébreu, hindi, grec, arabe, chinois, perse — se côtoient et se superposent pour créer un lien ethnique imaginaire qui rapprocherait et unifierait, de façon poétique, la diversité des peuples et leurs approches spirituelles.
Captivée par cette magnifique « machine humaine » que nous sommes, Agnès explore des pistes multiples dont les thèmes sont vécus comme de jolis passages obligés, parcourus au fil de son histoire personnelle. Dans cette matière picturale charnelle, elle est guidée par une communion entre abandon et maîtrise, défini et éthéré, relief et impalpable — faisant dialoguer matité et brillance, ombres et lumières.
Ces contrastes transmettent l'impulsion au mouvement, comme l'énergie féminine répondant tel un balancier à celle purement masculine. Il en résulte un travail artistique intimement lié aux sens, du regard au toucher, entre imagination et sensualité, liberté et emprise où la cadence suggérée devient un lien virtuel quasi musical. La musique reste omniprésente et joue un rôle prépondérant en termes d'inspiration.
De ce labyrinthe de pensées et de sensations aux formes diverses surgit l'idée de transformation favorisée par le mouvement, dans une perspective de progression, d'élévation, d'union, mais aussi de partage. Agnès suppose que toute œuvre d'art recèle, de façon très subtile, un potentiel énergétique conséquent. Créer en conscience porte en soi l'étincelle d'une forme d'authenticité.
« Listen beyond the music, perceive beyond the words. Until you feel beyond all possible interpretation. »
Following many rich inner experiences, I seek to evoke that force of the universe that has carried me ceaselessly. I have always been able to draw on the significant trials of my life, thanks to this wholesome force that brings me back to being, to our essence. A sensation of fullness, which often escapes us, reminding us of the blindness caused by our limited consciousness. It is in this spirit that I create. «Persevere in your being» wrote Spinoza.
Being an artist is — BEING — in full awareness, letting oneself be guided by the moment. It is knowing how to seize simple, fleeting moments, like the sparks of childhood, those paths overflowing with colours that present themselves to us, whose original intensity our instinct captures. It is a natural human function consisting in recognising this other dimension of ourselves.
In creating, I discover as if by magic my intentions emerging from my fingertips — somewhat like living the «mad impression of getting lost while finding oneself». For setting out to discover this central axis, where our fears evaporate of their own accord, is like detecting one's own «centre of gravity».
My painting is elaborated from my own writings or the sensations that a poem or a quote evoke in me. This message vector, echoing the pictorial aspect, induces a double reading where each person can find their own. «Writing is drawing a door on an impassable wall, and then opening it» — Christian Bobin.
In this subtle communication, far from the beaten path, passionately, I attempt to offer the reflections of my elation. A visible homage to the invisible, a hymn to the intensity of life, to infinity.
Studio · Works in progress
Studio-Salon · Paris
Paintings, sculptures and in-situ installations permanently inhabit the loft. Come and visit the space — discovering Agnès's works is part of the experience.
