Trait de côte

Signing at the Lardanchet bookshop on Friday 29 November from 6.30-8.30pm

A fine book by a major illustrator, presented by a renowned writer and traveller, this volume brings together around a hundred works by François Avril (1961-), all relating to the landscapes of Brittany. He has criss-crossed the region, setting up his studio in Trégor. Alongside the urban images that have made his name, showing New York, Brussels, Paris, etc. in a new light, Avril treats his landscapes in volumes and harmonious, sculpted, grandiose lines, where a few spindly figures with elongated shadows in the oblique light give scale.

Under the minimalist titles of ‘Parcelles’, ‘Brumes’, ‘Aiguilles’ and ‘Chaos’, ‘for François Avril, this generic Brittany remains as much an adventure as an interior space’, writes Jean-Luc Coatalem in the magnificent text that accompanies this selection of paintings and drawings. He summons the spirits of Gauguin and Nicolas de Staël, and sees in it ‘Poliakoff with a touch of Sempé. Or the other way round. To be contemplated without moderation.