ART CITIES: Paris-Stéphane Erouane Dumas

Stéphane Erouane Dumas’ work reveals the marks of time visible in the different strata on the chalky cliffs in Normandy, which he has been relentlessly painting for years. Into the subject matter he weaves a composition pitted with crevices that are given subtle depth through the play of light and varying tonality.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Pierre-Alain Challier Archive

Over time a strange alchemy has emerged between Stéphane Erouane Dumas and his subject – captured on the canvas using pigments, marble powder and hide glue that are by turns scratched and rubbed out then worked over to obtain the desired variations of transparency and matter. Stéphane Erouane Dumas in the exhibition “Septentrion” presents an unreleased series, consisting of approximately fifty works – oils on canvas and paper as well as a dozen sculptures. Each artwork possesses its own dynamic, never tiring, perceptible as it vibrates under the gaze. Birch trees and cliffs, as true ‘breathing lungs,’ inseparable subjects from his work as a draftsman-painter-sculptor, emerge in a new range of colors that blend pale pink or celadon green. An ‘artistically captivating’ nature is how Stéphane Erouane Dumas defines what the generous nature offers him and from which he draws inspiration, especially in Normandy, in his studio in Varengeville-sur-Mer, a village of artists made famous by Claude Monet or Georges Braque. The alabaster coast embodies the ideal place where he can engage with the verticality of the cliffs that dot the landscape and the forests in which he can immerse himself, abundant with inspiring essences, such as birch trees. And when he feels the need to include lakes or other elements in his paintings that he doesn’t find on-site – neither in his Parisian studio nor in his Norman studio – he doesn’t hesitate to draw from his notebooks that have accompanied him during his various travels in Northern Europe – Norway, Finland, Lapland, Iceland… The artist conceives a contemplative work, a kind of hypnotic meditation sublimated by the emotion it generates both visually and mentally, erasing the boundaries between figuration and abstraction in passing. Just as in his paintings, his sculptures also celebrate nature and strengthen his connection with this environment, both vegetal and mineral. One of his large bronzes has taken its place on a cliff overlooking the sea, about twenty kilometers from Varengeville, just like a recently installed ‘bronze cliff’ permanently placed in the park of Château de Lascours, between Uzès and Anduze (Gard). Could this be an invitation to discover the living and working environment where the artist and his family evolve? Here, the story is written within the family and inevitably with music, where the notes of composers like Miles Davis, Philip Glass, or Max Richter alternate with necessary silences.

Photo: Stéphane Stéphane Erouane Dumas, N°26_ Deux falaises flottantes, 2023, 100 x 180 cm, © Stéphane Erouane Dumas, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Pierre-Alain Challier

Info: Galerie Pierre-Alain Challier, 8 Rue Debelleyme, Paris, France, Duration: 8/2-30/3/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.pacea.fr/