Françoise Roy or the infinite journey.
Text by Marie-Françoise Le Saux,
Head curator of musées de Vannes, France.
May 2009.
Françoise Roy is one of those rare artists who advance with apparent tranquillity, or this is at least the path her career seems to follow. In fact, she quickly glides over the difficulties of life, not bothering with pathos. And maybe is she right when she states that she has been lucky.
Her first stroke of luck was to be born in a family open to the world. Her African childhood taught her the importance of direct contact, and gave her the taste for interaction, which would be a guideline throughout her life.
This began in 1956 in Senegal. Françoise Roy’s family only moved back to France eleven years later; when they settled in Nantes for a year, before moving to Quimper. This change of continents opened up new territories, different codes and also the opportunity to enrol in Thursdays' drawing classes. The influence these artistic studios had may never be stressed enough.
Françoise Roy enjoyed these lessons for years, and because of that, what was an idea became a necessity: she would be a painter. Her family, where drawing was not a serious activity, but a mere pastime, did not oppose the decision. Once she’d passed her baccalaureate, Paris became the perfect destination. She was enrolled in Fine Arts at the Ecole du Louvre, before discovering that there are other ways in Paris, mainly the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs where Françoise Roy studied from 1979 to 1983.
She chose the etching studio, without any thought of a professional perspective. Her masters were Fiorini who used to give his students all the freedom they required, closing no technical doors, Jean Clerté and Jacques Frélaut, who was the living memory of contemporary art’s creative adventure. He had worked with the greatest: Chagall, Miró, Picasso, Soulages, Debré. For the budding young artist, this encounter was fundamental, and made her realise she wanted to be one of those painters who etch.
In Paris, Françoise Roy haunted museums, theatres and above all Beaubourg, which had opened in 1977 and soon become the crossroads of contemporary creation, a place of experimentation, where thoughts about art and industry meet. At that point in time, Françoise Roy was seeking the meaning behind the countless drawings of domestic landscapes and etchings that she had produced during all these years.
Graduation from the "Arts déco" was an important moment for her on a personal level as well as in her work. Success arrived, unpredictably and financially welcome: an invitation to exhibit in a gallery, a commission from the Banque de la Cité, an Ensad prize.
Life organized itself. Françoise Roy spent a year at the Cité des Arts, gave lessons, and above all started to paint. Colours exploded, both luminous and controlled. Lines were not abandoned, but painting became as important as drawing and etching. Animals started to fill the landscapes, as references to the Knossos frescos or memories from the African period. Pierre Cabanne, in a beautiful article written in 1989, underlined the accuracy and the deepness of these "monsters" and "totems".
In 1987, Françoise Roy became a resident at Madrid's Casa Velásquez, where she was introduced to the family of professional artists. Now she had time, a studio to settle in, and a regular income, which allowed her to elaborate a real project. Etching was still her main interest. She painted varnish on big boards, confirming her plastic research. Her work, exhibited at the Chalcographie in Madrid between Goya and Picasso, moved her deeply.
The return to France was difficult after such an idyllic interlude, and she missed everything: the work that had started to fall into place, the Spanish climate, the people's generosity. But every cloud has its silver lining, and soon Jean Clerté offered her a few hours teaching at the Ensad, then to take over his etching lessons. Nevertheless, the issue of her private studio remained pending. It was only in 1996 that Françoise Roy and two fellow artists bought a vast warehouse in Ivry that she refurbished making it the hospitable place it is today.
The 1990's were a period of intense production. In the world of etching, the Lacourière-Frélaut studio, at the foot of Montmartre, was the epitome of the artists’ work-place, where stimulating research was fuelled by exchange of ideas and mutual success. From the presses, which remembered Jacques, Robert, Anne and the others, sprang beautiful prints, undertaken with Denise Frélaut's friendly collaboration until 2006. The studio's closure created a huge void.
In 1992, Françoise Roy executed a collection entitled "Four white objects". Square sheets of paper, four aquatint panels, scratched with etched engraving, print a light grey veil on the Japanese paper. From this mineral material emerge strange shapes, round markings. There is nothing conspicuous, no futile preciousness, simply the right expression.
“A Discreet Adversity” was printed in 1995, comprising thirteen sheets also using Japanese paper. Circular markings, the result of the same movement repeated over and over again, cover the whole sheet, resembling punctuation. Pink and red mingle with black creating a network of lines linking points, as if to indicate a path known only to the artist. The following year, in 1996, “Days and Days” extends the soft grey circular pattern where red dashes are also present, like seals. The thin Japanese paper lets the inks' slightest shiver appear and draw thin subjacent nerves. "Eclipses" in 1998 evokes crude light. A sun-like yellow dominates the first board of this portfolio of six. Stars are blended in with fog only to disappear in the shadow of the last blue and black board. "Hierbas I" and "Hierbas II", herbs in Spanish, were created in two sets of ten etchings printed on copper and zinc.
To appreciate the poetry of the white lines' twists and turns requires the spectator to share an essential element with the artist - time. The right way to enter Françoise Roy's work is to look for a long time, to abandon oneself to the hints she leaves here and there. For her, life can only be movement. In that sense, journeys mean regeneration, meeting other people, all the more easily as she usually travels on her own.
Françoise Roy
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Françoise Roy
Born in 1956 in Nantes.
French citizen.
1992 Scholarship from the Fond Régional d’Art Contemporain, Ile de France.
since 1989 Teacher at the Ecole nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs, Paris.
1987-1989 Resident artist at the Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, Spain.
1986-1987 Resident artist at the Cité des Arts, Paris.
1983 Bachelor of Arts from the Ecole nationale des arts décoratifs, Paris.
Personal Exhibitions
2003 “Hierbas”, Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut, Paris.
1992 “La Transparence des Choses”, Galerie de l’Institut Français, Madrid.
1990 Galerie Richard-Moordoch, Paris. Artothèque, Toulouse.
1989 “Circulos”, Galerie “Lienzo y Papel , Sevilla.
“Totems”, Réal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid.
Commissioned Print Works
2003 “Hierbas” Editions Lacourière et Frélaut, Paris.
1998 “Eclipses” Editions Lacourière et Frélaut, Paris.
1994 “ D’âmes et de silences”, text by Frédéric Lenormand,
Editions Lacourière et Frélaut, Paris.
Editions Lacourière et Frélaut, Paris.
2009 «ARTour», Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image Imprimée,
La Louvière,Belgium.
La Louvière,Belgium.
2006 « Artitudes », Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels.
2005 Art Frankfurt, Despalles Editions, « L’original multiple », Bibliothèque
nationale de France,
« L’enjeu», Ecole des Beaux Arts de Quimper,
2004 Art Frankfurt, Despalles Editions.
2003 Art Paris, Estampa (Madrid), Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut.
Art Frankfurt, Despalles Editions, Biennale de l’Estampe, Saint-Maur.
2002 «Au fil des pages », Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut, Paris.
Art Frankfurt, Despalles Editions.
2001 Art Frankfurt, Despalles Editions.
1999 Biénnale de la Gravure d’Ile de France, Versailles.
Femmes Graveurs du XX ème siècle Cabinet des Estampes, Liège.
1998 Le Mois de l’estampe, Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut.
Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium.
1997 SAGA , Art Frankfurt, Despalles Editions.
1996 Art Frankfurt, SAGA, Despalles Editions. “En filigrane”, Un regard
sur l’estampe contemporaine, Bibliothèque nationale de France.
sur l’estampe contemporaine, Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Public Collections
Musée de la Cohue, Vannes.
Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris.
Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium.
Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, Spain.
Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, Spain.
Artothèques de Toulouse, Nantes, Angers et Amiens.
FRAC d’Ile de France.
Sächsische Landes Bibliothek, Dresden, Germany.
Bibliography
«Françoise Roy ou le voyage infini», Marie Françoise Le Saux, 2009.
« Hierbas » ,Marie-Cécile Miessner, Nouvelles de l’Estampe, n°190,
2003
2003
« La stratégie du jeu », interview with Françoise and Johannes
Strugalla,
Strugalla,
Nouvelles de l’Estampe n° 158, 1998.
«En filigrane » catalogue Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 1996.
L’OEIL Laurence Pythoud, n° 461,1994.
«La transparence des choses », Pierre Cabanne, Madrid,1992.
Neuvième Salon d’Art Contemporain Bourg-en-Bresse, 1992, Pierre Cabanne.
Nouvelles de l’Estampe n° 109, text by Marianne Grivel,1990.
« Circulos » Juan -Manuel Alvarez, Sevilla, 1989.
«Totems » Pierre Cabanne, Madrid, 1989.
Copyrigts: ADAGP
Maison des artistes: R445356