The historical and contemporary work of Guillaume Bresson
Guillaume Bresson's paintings are characterized by their realism. To achieve this photographic precision, the painter follows a process which begins with preparatory work of photography sessions with models in his studio. They thus lend themselves to the staging of their bodies, offering theatrical poses and movements which are reminiscent of baroque painting. Through montage work, the artist then isolates and detaches the bodies before rearranging them into groups. Guillaume Bresson thus constructs paintings in which body language occupies a central place in the creation of the story.
The exhibition at the Palace of Versailles, a dialogue between battle scenes
The exhibition of the works of Guillaume Bresson is held in the African rooms of the Palace of Versailles. These large settings built under Louis-Philippe house the immense canvases representing the battles of the colonial conquest of North Africa in the 1830s and 1840s. In this face-to-face between the historical paintings, notably by Horace Vernet, and the works of Guillaume Bresson, battlefields and urban guerrillas will confront each other and question the visitor on the notion of staging violence in painting.
Guillaume Bresson
Born in 1982 in Toulouse and trained at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, Guillaume Bresson is today considered the leading figure of French figurative painting. Living in New York after Paris and Berlin, the painter is known for his resolutely contemporary scenes. Reinvesting a mode of representation from classical painting, long neglected until the beginning of the 21st century, Guillaume Bresson is reviving contemporary history painting by applying this mode of reconstruction of reality in his time. Both a painter and director, he anchors his work in the present, linking his creations to current social issues.
The exhibition is produced with the collaboration of the Nathalie Obadia Gallery.
-Practical information
From January 21 to May 25, 2025
African rooms, Palace of Versailles
Curator: Christophe Leribault, president of the Palace of Versailles
Exhibition accessible with a Castle or Passport ticket.
