Hervé HEUZÉ - Lights of the Alps

Press release

Galerie Richard presents Hervé Heuzé’s ninth solo exhibition entitled ‘Lumières des Alpes’ from June 16 to July 30, 2021. In contrast to the softness of the landscapes of his native Normandy he was attracted by the bright light of the Alps. He has returned several times since his first trip in 2003. He takes up the challenge of translating the extreme brightness of the snowy high mountain with ten oil paintings in black and white.

For Hervé Heuzé, the Massif du Mont-Blanc seems to correspond to the equivalent of the Montagne Sainte-Victoire for Paul Cézanne who had treated it as the main subject three times at regular intervals. In 2003 Heuzé began to represent wide views including the forests below and he quickly focused on the very high mountain. In his second series from 2005 he concentrated on glaciers and his painting came closer to abstraction.

In 2019 he returned to take new photographs and became aware of the melting of glaciers and the decrease in snow cover. He therefore chose to deal indirectly with the theme of global warming by taking his old photographs and painting them in black and white with acrylic with strong contrasts and lower brightness that dramatize these landscapes and paintings with old photographs, remains of a vanished world.

The difference in clarity and contrast between the two series is striking. The new series is very bright and provides a contemplative serenity. His treatment of the mountainous massif has always consisted of superpositions of fine lines of different grays that closely resemble lace. From a distance, the paint scrupulously respects the reality of the massifs. On the other hand the treatment of the skies is extremely varied and the artist gives free rein to his imagination to link the sky to the landscape.

Hervé Heuzé was born in Rouen in 1964 and lives and works in Normandy. A graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, he regularly exhibits in Paris, New York and at contemporary art fairs. His works have been presented at the Musée de Nice, the Musée et Centre Contemporain de Montbéliard, the Emily Davis Gallery at the University of Akron, OH, USA…
Winner of the Villa Medici outside the walls in 1991, his paintings are in the collections of the Palais de l’Elysée, the Centrum Beeldende Kunst Rotterdam, the Centre d’Art et de Culture Borusan, Istambul, the Musée de Montbéliard and in the private collections of Christian Lacroix, the Jean Hamon Foundation, Richard P. Friedman, NY, Dr Mark A.Maggiani, Malta, Dr Med H.C. Hans Schieussner, Frankfurt am Main, Thierry Martinez, Paris, Pierre Kamouh, Paris…