De la tauromachie à la danse

An exhibition of watercolors on the theme of bullfighting and tango by the artist Philippe Dodier (1933-2015). The theme of bullfighting has captivated many artists, from Goya to Picasso. In the 1950s, Philippe Dodier lived in Paris with the painter Eugène de Kermadec, who was also enthralled by bullfighting fever. Philippe Dodier, a photographer for the magazine Toros, wanted to enter the arena to understand it. During tientas (bull-testing sessions) in Spain, he connected with this dance of the bull and the torero. The encounter with Eugène de Kermadec, who became his mentor, was pivotal and shaped his painting style: painting not what one sees, but what one feels—this is one of the keys to his art. The starting point is always a photograph or something tangible; then the emotion creates the watercolor. This is a style of painting that may seem challenging, somewhat abstract, but, as Deniel-Henri Kahnweiller said, this painting is the link between the figurative and the abstract. These watercolors are on the edge of abstraction but never quite cross the threshold. From the dance of the bull and the bullfighter to the dance of the tango dancers and milongueros, there is only one step, which Philippe Dodier took. Captivated by these bodies moving to the rhythm of the music, he conveyed his emotion onto paper. Here we offer a selection of watercolors on his favorite themes, and we are happy to share with you these works on paper by our late father. Philippe Dodier, who passed away on April 8, 2015, was a self-taught painter; his pleasure was in reinterpreting subjects by moving away from reality. He said, "I always start with a figurative subject: a place, a person, a scene from life, a landscape that interests me because of what it represents. From the same subject, I create between eight and forty interpretations, all numbered, developed in a way that increasingly deviates from its original form." His creations are simply the fruit of his desire to go further; his work has always been based on an artistic exploration of what has not yet been said.

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