Exhibition “André du Colombier. A Lyrical Point of View”

Born in Barcelona in 1952 as André Paliard Iscu, the artist moved to Paris in the 1970s to study literature and philosophy. There he adopted the name du Colombier—“of the dovecote”—and decided to devote himself entirely to art. His first solo exhibition, Modestie, Compétence et Efficacité (Galerie Éric Fabre, 1977), marked the beginning of a discreet yet profoundly singular career.

His early works are built from the minimal gesture: a silver line on a black background, a mark caused by a door brushing against something, photographic documentation of domestic actions. Over time, du Colombier found his most characteristic medium in Chromolux paper sheets: glossy surfaces intervened with handwritten texts or transferable letters, ambiguous, almost coded phrases that question the relationship between language and image.

The artist also developed small mise-en-scènes with toys, mementoes and everyday objects, presented in cafés or improvised spaces, always before a small audience and without leaving any photographic trace.

Lyrical Point of View, the title taken from one of his last exhibitions in Paris (1999), sums up his artistic attitude: a lyrical, elusive gaze that defies categories and turns each work into an act of perpetual interpretation.