Laurent Dauptain participe à des accrochages,chez Claudine Legrand à Paris et chez Axelle fine arts à New York pendant cet été.
A la rentrée, il exposera, dans le cadre de "Affordable Art Fair".

Autoportraits, portraits, paysages, paysages industriels, marines et natures mortes sont les thèmes abordés par Laurent Dauptain à travers toutes les techniques du dessin et de la peinture.
Mais c' est sans doute la pratique acharnée et prolifique de l' autoportrait depuis plus de vingt-cinq ans qui fait la particularité de sa démarche.

Self-portraits, portraits of others, landscapes of countryside or of urban-industrial environments, seascapes and still-life. These are the main themes of Laurent Dauptain, which he treats through his mastery of multiple techniques of drawing and painting.
But it's his long relation with the self-portrait that sets him uniquely apart in the world of contempory art. More than a subject, for Laurent Dauptain, the self-portrait is a vector by which he projects us into another way of seeing.




Un article de Benoît Ladune vient de paraître dans le numéro de mai 2010 du magazine "MIROIR DE L'ART " sous le titre:

"LA PUISSANCE DE LA TOUCHE"

Les autoportraits de Laurent Dauptain, vous les avez sans doute rencontrés dans tel ou tel magazine, sur telle ou telle foire d’art contemporain, dans telle ou telle galerie. Leur puissance expressive vous aura sûrement marqué, et vous n’êtes pas le seul, je vous rassure. Il est vrai qu’il joue de la couleur avec maestria pour imposer sur toute la surface de la toile son visage, et les changements qui s’y opèrent selon l’humeur ou la lumière. Impossible de rester indifférent à cette peinture à la touche volontaire. Mais l’œuvre de Laurent Dauptain ne se résume pas à une introspection cent fois répétée sur son propre cas. Un autre thème le hante, celui des paysages urbains, dans lesquels, il faut le souligner, il excelle de la même façon. La ville s’y révèle sous un voile de couleurs franches où les oppositions de tons contribuent à lui donner un aspect un peu fantomatique. Ombres et lueurs diffuses s’y marient habilement dans une atmosphère à la fois sereine et trouble, comme en attente, comme en souffrance.


Le DAILY NEWS du 6 mai 2010 a publié un article de Barry Paddock sur l'exposition de New York sous le titre:

"SEES HIMSELF STARING BACK FROM HIS ART":

Artist Laurent Dauptain is known for painting over 3000 self-portraits depicting his gradual aging.

Dorian Gray he's not.
Artist Laurent Dauptain has painted thousands of self-portraits over the past 25 years, capturing every new wrinkle, every new gray hair.
And the 49-year-old Frenchman says he'll do it until the day he dies.
"I don't have to worry about flattering somebody or hurting someone's ego," he said of his strange fixation.
Still, it took one of his most important critics - his wife of 13 years - a while to warm up to the project.
"At first I thought he was obsessed and crazy," admits Sylvie Dauptain, 46. "Now I understand."
"There's a lot of freedom," when you decide to make yourself your artistic subject, Laurent Dauptain said yesterday, shortly after arriving from Paris ahead of his exhibit in Chelsea.
It all started when, at age 20, Dauptain drew 12 self-portraits for a college assignment to imagine himself at different ages.
He was fascinated by the results, which depicted his face from age 15 to 95.
He set out on a mission to re-create the project in real time.
"That was the impetus," Dauptain said, speaking in his native French. "Now as the years go by I see myself aging, I see the reality."
"I'm about halfway there," he said of the 95 mark.
Dauptain uses mirrors and recent photographs to study his image as he puts oil paint on canvases, some as big as 4 by 6 feet.
"The self-portraits for me are like the sunflowers for Van Gogh," he said.
His latest portraits go on display tomorrow at Axelle Fine Arts in Chelsea at 535 W. 25th St.
"There's new lines on my face," he said of his most recent work. "There's some white hair on my beard."
It's all part of the artist's 50-painting show, which also includes landscapes and cityscapes.
But it's his portraits that leave art lovers most fascinated.
Gallery owner Bertrand Delacroix was captivated when he first saw the work a few years ago.
"I don't like to see myself in the mirror," Delacroix said, "so it's hard to imagine someone painting himself 3,000 times."






"..., il est l'auteur d'autoportraits d'une vigueur expressionniste fascinante. Cadré au plus près du visage, il capte, non le changement qu'inflige le temps, mais les différentes expressions de la même face. De larges touches créent le relief et les ombres dans une dominante terre de Sienne-carmin, pointée de blanc."

Extrait du dictionnaire des arts plastiques modernes et contemporains. Jean-Pierre DELARGE. Editions Gründ.





Dernière mise à jour le 3 juin 2010