the essential
In 2020, Patrice Robert tried painting for the first time at his home. Five years later, the props maker by trade is slowly but surely moving towards a career as an artist. He sells them throughout Paris.
At first glance, the monochrome canvases of Patrice Robert, a young painter from Luz-Saint-Sauveur, prompt one to compare him to Pierre Soulages. “That’s often what I’m told, but Soulages didn’t use the same technique at all,” the Bigourdan artist immediately corrects. He has in fact found a style of his own, based on the work of black and its possible reliefs.
It all started at home, right in the middle of the first confinement of 2020. Patrice Robert then tried his hand at painting, working on several colors. “I realized that black offered me a depth that I didn’t have with other colors,” says the person. A few years later, this look at color allowed him to attract the eyes of an increasingly wider audience.
Singer M performs at the end of his first exhibition in Paris
In October 2023, Patrice Robert agrees to put on an exhibition of these works, named Visual Waves, in Paris with his photographer friend and cinema hairdresser Gérald Portenart. For a long time, he refused to display his works for others to see. “I had already been offered it before but I didn’t feel ready,” recalls the painter. This time, the desire is there, the success too.
The exhibition is popular, the paintings displayed on the walls of the Chapon Gallery are sold. Patrice Robert is experiencing a real professional turning point. Symbol of this exceptional success, one of his paintings is now located in Place Vendôme, a square considered the most luxurious in the world. “People from the art world also offered to collaborate and support me in my work,” says Luzéen.
The event even ends with “a very nice gift” from singer M (Matthieu Chedid) and guitarist Thibault Cauvin, who has also decided to acquire one of his works. The two musicians played a mini concert at the conclusion of the exhibition.
The sudden enthusiasm that Patrice Robert’s paintings aroused seems to be explained by the innovative nature of his style.
“I like living things, I want paintings where you can get lost for 20 minutes while looking at them,” explains Patrice Robert, advising you to contemplate his works from several angles. As soon as you move, you have the feeling of discovering another painting,” he explains. The adjective “hypnotic” is regularly chosen by his observers to describe his monochromes. “The paintings can express different things depending on the mood of the person,” he adds.
Light is also a factor of variability. The reliefs of the paintings are colored following the hue of the natural light.
A purely local artistic journey
Before all this, Patrice Robert was far from imagining himself a painter. Le Bigourdan wanted to be a national park ranger and started studying flora and fauna in Vic-en-Bigorre. But he ended up abandoning this idea and embarking on a series of varied professions. He opened a dance bar in Luz-Saint-Sauveur when he was 18, which he ran for 10 years. He then took ownership of a ski store which he sold after 4 years, before opening the Luz et Coutumes restaurant with his mother.
In charge of the decoration, he uses elements removed from mountain barns to dress the premises. “I have always had a taste for art and decoration,” he confides. This was confirmed in 2018 when he applied for a call for extras in his village for the making of the film “Belle et Sébastien”. He meets the props designer Nicolas Raffi and his job as a props designer. “I fell in love,” admits Patrice Robert.
Today, the props designer has participated in many films, including “Marsupilami”, “Aznavour” and Orelsan’s latest film. He now plans to put his adventure in cinema on hold to concentrate on his new career as a painter. With an exhibition at the Galerie Messine near the Champs-Elysées in March and two destinations in Bangkok and Honk Kong in preparation, Patrice Robert has a whole future as an artist taking shape.
