Stéphane GAUTIER

The childhood of art

 

Stéphane GAUTIER, 1973 - France

 

Beyond its striking nature, Stéphane Gautier's universe opens spaces for reflection and a mirror on our own childhood, its memorial and universal dimension, its symbols, the sacralization that it arouses in us.

Stéphane Gautier created his first painting at the age of 13, deciding to paste and paint his toys on a canvas. A provocative first gesture and artistic genesis that, rediscovered years later, arouses emotion and recognition from all those who discover the emotional objects that marked their past.

Stéphane Gautier's art is constantly out of step. Moving the object from one context to another, reinjecting stereotypical childhood symbols into an adult environment, he subverts all the codes of traditional art (paintings, sculptures, drawings) to reappropriate them. And it is through this ironic distance that this intuitive creator invites us to a deeper discussion on the means of representation, on the effectiveness of advertising and propaganda, and finally on the sacralization and diversion of childhood nostalgia.