Cécile GUETTIER (b. 1992) - Lot 57

Cécile GUETTIER (b. 1992) Mes mains resteront pures, 2022 From the series Pas tout à fait une autre Mixed media on canvas 150 x 120cm A mixed media on canvas by Cécile Guettier FR Cécile Guettier (b. 1992, Paris) graduated from the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes Métropole in 2018. She was selected for the Bourse Révélations Emerige in 2021 and won the Prix Villa Noailles. She lives in Paris and works in Poush Aubervilliers. "Upon discovering Cécile Guettier's work, our gaze is at once carried away by vibrating colors, a swarming of strokes, a variety of materials, and fixed by a clear composition and sensitive lines. On canvas and paper, at the crossroads of detail, the artist's will encounters a strange randomness, accidents specific to the language of painting, which support and reinforce her representations; it's as if the image pre-existed like a magnet in the white, and that any stain falling on the support would fill it. The figures in his work belong to neither dream nor nightmare; chimerical, their attractive colors keep us from being frightened by them, and their disquieting actions from wanting to meet them. It is no doubt this ambivalence that makes the contemplation of these works so generous; a silent excitement sets in, as our imagination moves from clue to clue. The singularity of Cécile Guettier's images, both plastic and narrative, means they take their place in our memory alongside those that gave us answers while inventing questions." Charles Hazah UK Cécile Guettier (born in 1992 in Paris) graduated from the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Nantes Métropole in 2018. She was selected for the Révélations Emerige Grant in 2021 and is a recipient of the Villa Noailles Prize. She lives in Paris and works at Poush Aubervilliers. "Discovering the work of Cécile Guettier, our gaze is both carried away by vibrating colors, a swarm of lines, a variety of materials, and anchored by a clear composition and delicate strokes. The artist's intention meets, on canvas and paper, at the intersection of details, a strange chance-accidents intrinsic to the pictorial language-that align with and reinforce her representations. It seems as though the image preexisted like a magnet in the blank space, and every mark falling on the surface was destined to fill it. The figures in her work belong neither to dreams nor nightmares; chimerical, their alluring colors protect us from being frightened by them, and their unsettling actions from wanting to meet them. It is undoubtedly this ambivalence that makes contemplating her work so generous; a quiet excitement sets in, and our imagination moves from clue to clue. Through their unique plastic and narrative qualities, Cécile Guettier's images find a place in our memory alongside those that brought us answers while inventing the questions."