OLIVIER MASSEBEUF

Born in Lyon in 1963, Olivier Massebeuf entered the Beaux-arts de Paris in 1982. After spending a year there, he decided to study English and spent a year in London. Upon his return, he became a freelance illustrator and worked on science fiction illustrations for a role-playing game magazine. In 1991, he reconnected with English by becoming a teacher. Since then, he has carried out this activity alongside his artistic practice, as he has never stopped painting. In 2004, he exhibited in Montreuil under the patronage of Amnesty International and, in 2005, met a London gallerist with whom he has worked ever since.

Olivier Massebeuf's painting is exclusively figurative, realistic, and resolutely focused on the nude and portraiture. His pronounced taste for shades of grey and the absence of background places the subjects of his canvases at the center of attention, in a raw and direct relationship with viewers. In this relationship, the finesse and precision of his lines are the vectors of a multitude of emotions offered to us by his approach to movement.

Very early on, he was fascinated by the work of certain comic book artists such as Tardi and his use of color, which would influence his own works. One could see similarities in Olivier Massebeuf's painting with that of Francis Bacon or Lucian Freud. The resolute minimalism of his backgrounds, his precise use of color, and the movement he imbues in the bodies he paints are reminiscent of certain works by these great masters of modern art. However, Olivier Massebeuf's work is not imbued with the violence and brutality that characterized that of his predecessors. His painting is not that of a "tortured" artist; it celebrates and represents humanity.

Our opinion : vibrant, Olivier Massebeuf's painting offers a vision of man in all his complexity thanks to a perfect mastery of body color and light. An artist to collect and follow…