Work of the Month - Yves Gobart

Yves Gobart. living in the landscape

Yves Gobart 
Montauban, 1973  
Home sweet Home (série “Shelters”), 2014 
Huile sur toile – 131 x 195,5 cm 
Inv. BA.AMC.05b.2015.003349 

Yves Gobart is a French painter who graduated from the École nationale supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art Olivier de Serres (ENSAAMA, Paris), and subsequently from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he studied under Vincent Bioulès, Jean-Michel Alberola and Vladimir Velickovic. He was awarded the Diplôme national supérieur d’arts plastiques (DNSAP) in 1999. His artistic practice centres primarily on drawing and oil painting.

Starting out as a draughtsman, he developed a pictorial practice based on observation and working from life. His numerous artist residencies, notably at La Métive, Chamalot and Shakers, have been pivotal stages in the development of his work. Drawing on the teachings of Vincent Bioulès, his method is based on creating quick sketches from life, which then serve as a starting point for compositions developed in the studio.

From 2014 onwards, he developed the Shelters series, which focuses on makeshift shelters built in forests, on derelict land or on the urban fringes. Whilst this series has its origins in the observation of situations of extreme precariousness, it quickly moves beyond the documentary dimension to explore the relationships between landscape, vernacular architecture and human presence. The plastic sheeting, its transparency, its folds and the way light plays upon it, becomes a subject in its own right, whilst these ephemeral structures create a constant tension between what is revealed and what remains hidden. At the same time, Yves Gobart has been developing other series of paintings, grouped under the titles Ghosts, Donkeys, Go West!!!, Landscapes and Accidents.

Home Sweet Home, created as part of the Shelters series, subtly subverts an expression that evokes comfort and intimacy. Here, ‘home’ takes the form of a makeshift shelter built from plastic sheeting and branches in the heart of a forest. The composition is organised around this central shelter, whose triangular silhouette contrasts with the rhythmic verticality of the tree trunks. A colour palette dominated by deep greens, dark browns and warm shades of red and ochre creates a silent and slightly unsettling atmosphere, whilst the blues and greys of the tarpaulins catch the light and guide the viewer’s gaze. The folds, transparencies and reflections of the plastic breathe new life into the traditional art of drapery using a contemporary material. Concealed behind this fragile envelope, the inhabitant remains invisible, leaving it to the viewer to imagine what is unfolding beyond the surface. Poised between protection and vulnerability, the work makes refuge a universal motif, where the landscape becomes the silent theatre of the human condition.

At the same time, Yves Gobart is pursuing a more introspective exploration of painting itself through a series of small-scale works depicting tubes of paint. Created on a daily basis, these works question the very foundations of the act of painting: how can a colour be made visible by using precisely the material it contains? This exploration of the relationships between representation, material and colour was notably featured in the exhibition Encore & Encore / Keer op Keer at the Maison des Arts in Schaerbeek in 2024.

Yves Gobart’s work reflects a constant interest in the landscape as a space of memory and projection. Whether he depicts a forest, a makeshift shelter, a tube of paint or one of the motifs developed in his various series, each of his subjects serves as a pretext for a reflection on the gaze, presence and the possibilities of contemporary painting. Based in Brussels since 2018, he pursues a practice that combines observation of reality, technical rigour and a constant questioning of the means of painting.

Christophe Remacle
Curator and restorer / Liège City Museums