Florian Eymann

Historical scenes à la Eymann

With his dark, disorienting portraits, Florian Eymann (°1980, Auxerre, lives and works in Orléans/France) bridges the gap between past and present, between abstraction and figuration and between art history and his own painterly universe. 'I nurture a fascination for classical themes such as the portrait, but also still life, flowers or vanitas scenes. I find it challenging to make these subjects, which have been painted thousands of times, my own and translate them in a personal way. At the same time, by integrating those historical scenes, I reach out to the audience with recognisable keys,' Eymann says.

From his love of contrasts, chiaroscuro and shadow, the self-taught artist harbours a particular fondness for Caravaggio or Rembrandt van Rijn, among others. 'I love the contrast between light and dark, and find it fascinating how I can make certain bits of a portrait stand out from the shadows. Like Rembrandt, I encourage viewers to actively look for the full picture, which only gradually reveals itself,' Eymann says.
That Eymann's paintings sometimes look almost like collages is the result of their creation process. 'In preparation for each series, I make collages on the computer with images I usually find on the internet. To do this, I often deconstruct works by old masters, and reconstruct them by adding abstractions or references to contemporary visual culture. During the painting process itself, that digital sketch is mainly a companion, and not a compelling context. It is primarily the canvas and my own feelings at that moment that determine the painting process. The abstraction provides a notion of transformation and the passage of time,' says Eymann.

Profound softness

'My images used to be more expressionistic, leaning more towards the work of - the grand master of the genre - Francis Bacon. Increasingly, I am moving towards a more cubist approach. This allows me to show the different facets of a portrait at the same time, and bring movement to the work. Often my portraits have different eyes, noses or faces. Through this created and thus to some extent controlled chaos, I give a great freedom of interpretation to the viewers. I challenge them not to linger in the first image, but to look for what is behind it,' Eymann says.

'While Francis Bacon's portraits often come across as violent, I myself mainly look for depth, softness and melancholy. Although it is collectors who have pointed this out to me. I myself concentrate mainly on painting. I am not an intellectual artist, so I like to leave the interpretation of my works to others,' Eymann says. 'For the same reason, I usually just give my works a number as a title. I leave the gallerists free to make up a poetic title to it afterwards or to dialogue about my work with the public.'