Edwart Vignot , meeting with an artist

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Edwart Vignot , meeting with an artist

From June 23rd to August 1st, and then from September 1st to 26th, the Gallery Guido Romero Pierini – Michael Timsit at 37 rue Chapon plays host to the creations of Edwart Vignot as he reveals works echoing and paying tribute to the old masters. Immutable are the links that the artist weaves with art from the past and sometimes even from the present.

Edwart Vignot tells us about his creative process in a way that is as natural as it is fascinating. We never get tired of listening to him and understanding his inspirations, which he reveals to us during a captivating interview.

On the occasion of Edwart Vignot’s exhibition “The lips exceed the meter, to better embrace the art” , Acumen Magazine met this creator of a thousand artistic facets and presents his portrait.

Itinerary of a curious child

A former publicist who was also head of the antique drawings department at Christie’s in Paris, Edwart Vignot has had a rich and varied career. Art has always been part of his life! A collector from a very young age and a creator at heart, he has sought inspiration from other artists he admires in his new exhibition in rue Chapon. Thus, he refers to Warhol by grandly framing the McDonald’s loyalty program membership card. He also nods to Warhol with the W in his first name “Ed-W-art,” as well as to Mondrian by turning around two simple frames.

“‘White Mondrian,’ it’s a do-it-yourself Mondrian. Normally, one buys the visible side of a framed print, the front side. I saw right away that we should be interested in the back, its reverse side, a thousand times more imaginative and more beautiful.”

What is the common thread in your creative process?

“What I like is to popularize the history of art in order to bring it to as many people as possible, to express myself as simply as possible, to make people aware of the beauty of the visible and, above all, invisible art that surrounds us.”

A singularity in diverted works

To Vignot, making art accessible means exhibiting in an aesthetic, refined and playful way.

In this “first retrospective,” you will have the opportunity to find a work inspired by Oscar Wilde, with a beautifully framed plaque: “Life imitates art.” Tribute is also paid to Abrecht Dürer, Théodore Géricault and Ernest Meissonier in a one-minute film in which a horse is seen contemplating the painting of a dead horse. A few moments later, the living animal takes the same pose next to one of the last paintings of the famous painter of the raft of the Medusa. A short moment of power and gentleness, where one is simply seduced by the beauty.

Edwart Vignot also salutes Rodin’s work by evoking its true nature and its fundamentals.

You will also see works inspired by Joan Mitchell, Jacques Louis David and Salvador Dali.

“The artist’s DNA is not his blood but his style.”

In addition, you will discover one of the key pieces of the exhibition, especially made for this event: a kissing cannon in clouds, a celestial nod to René Magritte, which Edwart called THE KISS CLOUD CANNON.

The man who created thirty original works for the 20th anniversary of the reopening of the Nancy Museum of Fine Arts will also evoke his many influences this summer, such as Delacroix, Canaletto, Morandi, Giacomelli, Ensor, Hugo, Rothko, Baroque sculptors and even Ptolemaic Egypt. A myriad of artists with different visions and styles that forever marked the history of art and influenced Edwart Vignot.

“I’ve come a long way and I was close to everything. I’m curious. I pick things up. I have a pretty good memory. I’m never bored. That forces me to search for activities that fill me up all the time. In short, I wouldn’t be able to do the same job all my life. But an artist can!”

Between directing films, writing books, exhibiting his work and encouraging emerging artists, Edwart Vignot has more than one string to his bow.

“I behaved strangely with other children; I was alone, I wrote, I observed and I said nothing. I was always attracted to anything visual.”

His favorite movies:

Peter Greenaway’s Murder in an English Garden.
Hollywood Boulevard by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante
Manhattan by Woody Allen

His favorite writers:

Gustave Flaubert: A Simple Heart
Italo Calvino: all the work, including The Perched Baron
Honoré de Balzac: The Skin of Sorrow
Jean de La Fontaine: Les Fables

His favorite places:

The National Gallery in London
The Hunting Museum in Paris

The place that inspires him:

The Nancy Museum of Fine Arts, which offered him the chance to create works directly related to the museum’s collections for the 20th anniversary of its reopening.

His madeleine de Proust:

The song of the swallows that announce spring.

His favorite restaurants:

Le Bougainville, 5, rue de la Banque, Paris 2nd floor.
Le Bistrot Valois, place de Valois (near the Louvre museum)
Le Bistrot de Paris, 33, rue de Lille, Paris 7e

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