When observing the paintings of Augusta Lardy Micheli (CH 1994), gathered in the exhibition “Kérosène,” the viewer is confronted with images of great intensity, concentrated on dense canvases that seem to freeze the energy of thought and the force of artistic gesture.
These expressions of life primarily stem from the very material of the canvases. Linen, a support characterized by its absorbent thickness, demands the artist’s swift strokes, thus imposing the expressive force of the moment over the reflection of everything one wishes to represent. The spontaneity of the gesture becomes the key, expressing layers of thoughts through bursts of paint, memories of imaginary or real landscapes, remembered paintings, and imagined gestures.
These canvases form a cerebral fabric, containing within the canvas itself the energy of thought and the strength of action. In the subtle shadows of violet and pink tones, there are memories of imaginary ports by Vernet, while the burst of blues transports us to luminous and aquatic scenes of the Mediterranean. Between layers and a mix of colors, the works reveal a particular geography, in constant balance between the lived places – where we come from – and the imagined destinations – where we would like to go. Painting is both the compass and the consciousness of the artist: it allows her to rediscover the Swiss valleys and discover the center of the Earth, reminds her of the scent of salt on the skin, and seeks to decipher the mysteries of emotion. The canvases contain layers of oil and layers of life.
They shape that “je ne sais quoi” of existence that we all go through, like the green man crossing the red flames of the canvas and the tension forces it contains. Some canvases survive this passage through life, remnants of oil flames: leaving the viewer the joy of contemplating what remains in the depths and never goes away. Like space, like time, like lived memories and recollections. Like hope.
On this body of canvases, some parts might seem incomplete despite being perfectly finished: the aim is not to be perfect but to be sincere! There’s nothing to hide under a very dense layer, nothing to prove under a too-pure varnish, nothing to express on a too-flat canvas.
One must seek depth, always, wherever it may be!
Augusta Lardy’s painting makes us perceive it in the gaze, feel it on the canvas, and live it in the layers and strata of color. With this exhibition, she intends to establish a manifesto that is not political but sentimental. This is what she offers us, a painting-reflection of Art and its artist, which transcribes the essence of images through visceral canvases. They cease to be mere fragments of memory to become pieces of life.
Elie de Gourcuff
