Bernex: wildlife frolics under the brush of Eric Alibert

The eye does not immediately spot them, as they are hidden in the shadowy network of the undergrowth. It is only after a few moments of contemplation that we see their plumage appear, whose black and white streaks echo the chiaroscuro that reigns under the snow-covered forest. These discreet little birds coexist with bears, cranes and wolves, captured in the great outdoors by the expert brush of Eric Alibert.

The 66-year-old painter presents Gates of Champagne a series of unpublished works, mainly watercolors, brought together under the title of “Wild Calligraphies” – subtitle of a work that he published in 2018 by Slatkine, reissued in small format in 2023 by Glénat. His work could not hope for a more suitable setting than the municipal art gallery of Bernex. Installed in the attic of the old town hall, the exhibition space overlooks an esplanade where a bronze wolf from Geneva proudly sits Robert Hainard (1906-1999), long-time Bernese resident and eminent naturalist: “We are at the scene of the crime”, summarizes with humor Eric Alibert.

The living speaks to us

Like his predecessor, the man who was born in France in 1958 and settled at the end of the lake years ago maintains a link with wild life marked by great sincerity: “Like certain philosophers, questioning the world through the status of animals fascinates me, he explains. My quest consists of exploring how living things speak to us. Nature is in great danger today and this calls into question our common future.”

Quoting Hainard, he admits to being “overwhelmed by the feeling of infinity in everything”, which he tries to translate into “the universal language of painting”. Spanning forests, deserts, mountains and the banks of lakes and rivers across continents since adolescence, Eric Alibert takes sketches from life and works, in the calm of his workshop, on the basis of numerous sound and visual documents.

“I like to let myself be surprised,” he says. My paintings are often the result of beautiful encounters, of happy coincidences.” Like this family of bears walking in the distance at the top of a ridge, or this great egret just taken off, whose white open wing finds a secret correspondence in the pale reflection of the moon on the pond. Weightless herons in the wind, a titmouse like a drop of water on a branch, a capercaillie camouflaged under the foliage: the breath of the living flows through the creation of the self-taught painter with great poetic force.

Working on the hidden

Convinced that nature likes to hide itself, that it remains in motion, untranslatable and fleeting, Eric Alibert increasingly directs his work towards the concept of impermanence. His recent creations are thus less illustrative, using blur and shadows to sometimes border on abstraction. “I like working on the hidden,” he emphasizes. The arrival of night also fascinates me. It is captivating to observe how the evening palette transforms with the disappearance of light.”

Brushed in small touches with Indian ink or watercolor on Japanese paper, animals and landscapes become vocabulary elements to express the beauty of the natural world. There is something Far Eastern in the pictorial language of Eric Alibert, whose calligraphic gesture travels with expressive strokes the border between the visible and the invisible.

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