A musical artist, Etienne left his home region of Doubs when he was twenty years old to move to the capital after having studied classical piano for several years.
He painted his first work, an auto portrait covered with a transparent lily pad leaf at age 23. He learned drawing at the Sèvres Workshop, and painting with Christian Zeimert, and attended the School of Visual Communication (ECV). He worked as a graphic artist for twenty years, which allowed him to renew his relationship with imagery, while keeping a critical eye on his work as an artist. His first exhibition was held in Tours in 1993.
2010 marked a turning point in his artistic career. Etienne decided to dedicate himself exclusively to his passion. He found the medium of paint more fascinating than the flat surface of advertising graphic work, finding inspiration in his different travels (Turkey, Burkina Faso), natural elements (water, earth, air, fire) and in his urban environment. The sight of Parisian walls, worn and covered with graffiti makes him question the traces of time on modern society. The artist defines his melancholic works as «scenic abstraction».
Searching for a language that is void of all artifice, Etienne doesn't hesitate to question the medium in an «archaeological» approach to art. His colour palette is reduced to a minimum. Sombre tones invade the battered space of a canvas that is scraped, scratched and attacked by the coloured material. This purist conception of art shows the influence of his models, Antoni Tàpies (Spanish artist, 20th - 21st century), Pierre Soulages (French artist), Alberto Burri (Italian artist, 20th century) and Anselm Kiefer (German artist). A constant need for novelty pushes him to explore different techniques (painting, collage, engraving) and to use different and varied materials (resin, zinc, lead, coal, glass, gold leaf…). During his travels, photography helps him fix «instants» of life that feed his active imagination.
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