Catherine Viollet
Biography
Catherine Viollet
(born in 1953, Chambéry)
Trained at the École des Beaux-Arts de Quimper and the Arts Décoratifs de Nice, she appears for the first time on the art scene in 1981 during the exhibition “Finir en beauté” organized by the art critic Bernard Lamarche-Vadel. Soon after, she associates with a French art movement, “Figuration Libre”.
Rapidly, she develops her singular style inspired by Maillol's sculpture or Amazon Indian's bodies, and the power of forms and energy emerging from rich gestures in paintings. Instead of aiming at an accurate representation of subjects, Catherine Viollet tries to find her proper rhythm in both sketch lines and color energies.
Several recurrences appear in her paintings: the presence of drawing increasingly coming to the foreground; the importance of materials as an integral part of the work: cardboard, colored fabrics, back of leatherette, decorated linoleum, canvas coated with very fine pumice, plastic carpet mats; the disconnection. This means that each element of the painting - drawing, colors, materials - has its own life and allows the air to circulate and reinvent the reality.
More recently, this attraction for the air leads her to pay attention to the weather maps consulted in a daily newspaper. She develops a fascination for the lines of atmospheric disturbances measured using the scientific method (The time step of the model), a purely formal and virtual abstraction, some instability and the total ephemerality of the results, the echo of anger in the sky and the cruelty of its effects...
She is represented in numerous public and private collections. Especially, on the occasion of the exhibition “Libres Figurations, années 80”, she was invited at the Hélène and Edouard Leclerc Fund for Culture curated by Pascale Le Thorel.
Exhibitions selected
Solo exhibitions
2015 - La ligne végétale, Chapel Saint-Jacques, Clohars-Carnoët, France
2014 - Dix heures et demie... une journée particulière, Moments Artistiques, Paris, France
2012 - Fenêtre, Atelier Blanc, Villefranche de Rouergue, France
2010 - Entre-deux, l'H du Siège Gallery, Valenciennes, France
2008 - Le pas de temps du modèle, The Sucy-en-Brie castle, Sucy-en-brie, France
2005 - Suspens, Fondation Ecureuil for contemporay art, Toulouse, France
2001 - Faure Museum, Aix-les-Bains, France
1999 - Julio Gonzalez Gallery, Arcueil, France
1996 - 1997 - 1999 - Corinne Caminade Gallery, Paris, France
1996 - Alliance Française, Nagoya, Japan
1992 - Les seuils de la métamorphose, Kadans Gallery, The Hague, Belgium
1989 - Chapel of Visitandines (DRAC Picardie), Amiens, France
1986 - Institut Français, Ankara, Turkey
1986 - Oniris Gallery, Rennes, France
1986 - Manus Presse Gallery, Stuttgart, Germany
1983 - La trêve des héroïnes, Ch. Cheneau Gallery, Paris, France
Group exhibitions
2019 - Inciser le temps. Une année en peinture: acte I, Galerie muncipale Jean-Collet, Vitry-sur-Seine
2018 - Libres figurations. Années 80, Fonds Hélène et Edouard Leclerc, Landerneau
2017 - A la lumière de Matisse, Musée de Vence
2011 - Identité de genre, Centre d'art contemporain Passages, Troyes
2010 - Pensées détachées, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris.
2010 - Un hommage à Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Artothèque, Caen
2009 - Dans l'oeil du critique. Bernard Lamarche-Vadel et les artistes, Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris.
2008 - Assises, Ministère de la Culture, Paris
2003 - A Paul Gauguin, Musée Gauguin, Tahiti
1999 - Figuration/non figuration, musée de Larissa, Grèce
1998 - Au fil de l'eau, Musée de l'Electricité, Lisbonne
1993 - Eloge de la peinture, musée de Toulon
1991 - Portraits actuels, FRAC Orléans
1991 - Un regard sur l'art contemporain - collection Agnès b, Musée Picasso, Antibes
1988 - Misère et grandeur du corps, galerie Agnès b, Paris
1986 - FIAC, galerie Christian Cheneau, Paris
1984 - Décrire la couleur, Frac Bretagne, Rennes
1982 - Statement one, Holly Salomon gallery, New York
1982 - Figuration libre à Nice, chez Ben, Nice
1981 - Finir en beauté, chez Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Paris (avec Blanchard, Boisrond, Combas, Di Rosa, Alberola, Blais, Maurige).
Collections
Regional Foundation of contemporary art (FRAC Midi-Pyrénées), Toulouse, France
National Foundation for Contemporary Art (FNAC), Paris, France
City of Paris Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
Museum of contemporary art of Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine, France
Paul Gauguin Museum, Tahiti, French Polynesia
National Library of France, Paris, France
Corporate Collections: Opel France, Bank BNP Paribas, Group of Brittany Ferries…
Artistic residences and Prizes
1996 - Residence Alliance française, Sendai, Japan
1985 – Residence for 8 month, Louxor, Egypt
1984 - Lauréate Painting Prize, Salon de Montrouge, Montrouge, France
