Études

"For me three ways, as far as I am concerned, of drawing: small working sketches without aesthetic research but not without charm in the result. In some cases, these first drawings I want to push them for my pleasure. Finally, drawings intended for friendship or commerce and obviously more neat in appearance. "

For Martial Raysse, drawing is both practical mastery of the artistic exercise and discipline of thought. It is a strong gesture of inscription in the long history of art and of confrontation with the old masters, notably Leonardo da Vinci and Nicolas Poussin. It is also a way of understanding artistic work in its aspect of "labor": "I am learning my trade. All I would like to say, looking at them, is that I have worked, worked ... I draw the characters, until I find the right posture. Then I make other drawings, to place them in a scenography. When I’m satisfied with it, I make Xerox out of it, I project it onto the canvas, I draw the outlines with charcoal, I turn off: I resume the lines. I start painting then. "

Sketches on the multipliable and infinitely transformable motif, meticulous captures of a landscape detail, projects for monumental ensembles, studies which appropriate the classic themes of painting and which divert them with humor, collages or fragments of a vision, as many supports in view of the great pictorial compositions, Raysse's drawings acquire a value in themselves, and constitute a polymorphic corpus enriched with enigmatic poems.