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12 | Jean-Yves BOCHER
17 T
146 x 114
In Jean-Yves BOCHER’s canvases, the eye is initial- the setting once again vanishes into pale and uncer-
ly enmeshed in the maze of brushstrokes and drawn tain mists. Impastos of colour stand alongside areas
into the canvas’s immensity and depth before finally of transparency. The brushstroke, which at times is
being captured by its veil of mist. Small and large- hard and temperamental, and the expressive ener-
sized paintings, which boast mixed-media techniques, gy in BOCHER’s artwork evoke on the one hand the
combine the lightness and transparency of waterco- “all-over” concept of American-inspired abstract
lours with the grey-white hue of gouache, incorpo- expressionism; on the other hand, a fondness for
rating chalk lines and hatched layers of opal acrylic balanced compositions against a pre-existing back-
with puffs of dry pigment. Composed of graphic and ground and recalls the School of Paris. The painter
pictorial elements, the blends applied to the canvas is in fact conducting an inner dialogue between his
in broad and spontaneous brushstrokes evoke rawness consciousness and sub-consciousness. Added to that is
and incompleteness, but also fleeting emotions. This a permanent creative oscillation between the extre-
rhythmical structure of colours and shapes expresses mes that are order and chaos. The creative process
intuitions rather than certainties, and in places re- therefore powerfully serves to visualise the figuration
veals spatial and figurative references. Visual effects of the shapeless. The idea of repeated transgression
in space are primarily created by the sudden juxtapo- supersedes rational imagination and static structures.
sition of static and dynamic arrangements, as well This ambivalence between tangible presence and spi-
as the play of straight and hard shapes with smooth ritual transcendence adds to the appeal of Jean-Yves
curves. At times, figurative flashes can be seen before BOCHER’s paintings.
Reinhard STRÜBER, German Historian
