Christian Floquet

Born in 1961, in Geneva.

Lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland.



   Education 


1986    École supérieure d'art visuel de Genève



   Presentation


Christian Floquet shows large recent paintings, somewhere between geometric abstraction and perceptible surface. Throughout his pictorial work, which is inspired by the language of geometric abstraction, this Swiss artist casts his eye on the relations between space and plane, form and colour. His pictures, be they rectangular or square, invariably with just two colours, play on the recurrence of one and the same motif. Fragmented coloured spaces, exploded asymmetrical figures, absence of references, and hierarchization of planes are the recurrent data informing his work.



   Public collections


Frac Bourgogne, Dijon, France 

Frac Grand-Large - Hauts-de-France, Dunkerque, France

Musée de Grenoble, France

Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, France 

Centre national des arts plastiques, Puteaux, France 



Two colors, no more, was the title of Christian Floquet's 2003 solo exhibition at the MAMCO in Geneva. It followed up one of the basic rules of his painting, another being the use of square or rectangular shapes which are also found in the format of the paintings. Two industrial colors applied with a brush on a canvas that is never framed – and whose edges are never painted – presenting flat areas that are non-expressive from the point of view of gesture (no trace of the hand passing to and fro can be seen here) and fully given over to their superficial aspect. This asceticism of painting and its practice, directly inherited from the modernist avant-garde movements, is not as simple as it appears. For it is enough to draw close to a painting by Christian Floquet to see how the declared economy of his painting highlights a fundamental fact: it is not possible, as soon as two colors are caught in two forms, to deal with a purely film-like treatment of the working surface. In other words, even with a modeling vocabulary that is limited to such an extreme extent, there is always depth that emerges from flat areas of color, however constant, spread out and strict they may be.  


If, for example, we look at the largest painting in the exhibition, Sans titre n° 14 (2021), which is made up of rectangular blue and violet flat tints, laid out obliquely on the canvas – which is also one of the constants of this art – and as if nested inside each other, it is impossible to know which were painted first, because each one can alternately take over from the other, thus opening up a minimal and operative depth: the surface does not let itself be overcome as it is always more or less – and already – a flattened depth (a "flat depth", as the art historian Jean Clay would put it). What this form of painting shows, what it has been exploring for nearly forty years, is its very impossibility, its glorious operative failure: even on the surface of the canvas, there is always a painted thickness, and thus the fabrication of a manifest pictorial illusion. Even without a narrative or illustrative will, the painted image contradicts the superficiality of the subjective in order to open up a background, however thin and fine it may be. Even without wanting to say so, painting does not cease to create an illusion.


This is what this exhibition shows once again. It is the fourth exclusively devoted to Christian Floquet by the Ceysson & Bénétière gallery: the first in New York, the others having been in Paris (2014), Saint-Étienne (2017) and Luxembourg (2020). His latest works will be on display, notably square paintings with colored squares placed obliquely in their centre: diamond shapes. Here too, the surface asserts itself and surprises us, not to say deceives us: it is enough to scrutinize it to be caught up in the vertigo of confrontation and aspiration, confrontation between two colored flat areas that touch each other without mixing; a visual aspiration through this positive and dynamic confrontation which leaves us in a state of incessant astonishment due to its eternally undecidable outcome.   


Thierry Davila, 2021

Solo shows at Ceysson Gallery
Christian Floquet , New York
January 12 - February 26, 2022

Christian Floquet , Wandhaff
December 14, 2019 - February 15, 2020

Christian Floquet, Saint-Etienne
March 16 - May 06, 2017

Christian Floquet, Paris
May 24 - June 21, 2014


Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
La Ligne Passée, Luxembourg
June 30 - September 16, 2012

La Ligne Passée, Luxembourg Art Moderne
June 30 - September 15, 2012

Christian Floquet - Franck Chalendard, Genève
May 03 - July 14, 2012




Solo shows (selection)


2020

Christian Floquet, Ceysson & Bénétière, Wandhaff, Luxembourg 


2019

Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland


2017

Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Saint-Étienne, France


2016

Galerie Joy de Rouvre, Geneva, Switzerland


2014

Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Paris, France

Galerie Barnoud Entrêpot 9, Quetigny, France


2012

Christian Floquet / Franck Chalendard, Galerie Bernard Ceysson, Geneva, Switzerland


2011

Galerie Media, Neuchâtel, Suisse L'Elac, Renens, Switzerland


2009

Galerie Jacques Girard, Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France


2005

F. Beaudevin / C. Floquet / CR. Tissot, Can, Neuchâtel, Switzerland


2003

Espace Arlaud, Lausanne, Suisse Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland

Deux couleurs, pas plus, Mamco, Geneva, Switzerland


2002

Confer artactuel, Nyon, Switzerland  


2000

Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland


1999

Copyright tutti edition, Verduno, Italy


1998

Galerie Eva Mack, Göppingen, Germany   

Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland


1997

Palais de l'Athénée - Salle Crosnier, Geneva, Switzerland


1996

Julije Knifer/Christian Floquet, Mamco, Geneva, Switzerland


1995

Galerie Etienne Tilman, Brusselas, Belgium

Galerie Georges Verney-Carron, Villeurbanne, France


1994

Espace Michel Voisin, Biot, France


1992

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland


1991

Galerie Gilbert Brownstone, Paris, France


1990

Galerie Georges Verney-Carron, Villeurbanne, France

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland 

Tilman Fesler & Coufo Art Gallery, Brussels, Belgium


1989

Sous-sol, Ecole Supérieure d'Art Visuel, Geneva, Switzerland


1988

Galerie Georges Verney-Carron, Villeurbanne, France


1987

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland

Le Consortium, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Dijon, France   

Kunsthalle, Winterthour, Switzerland   

Musée Géo-Charles, Echirolles, France   

Musée des Beaux-Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland


1986

Galerie Rivolta, Lausanne, Switzerland


1985

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland


1984

Filiale, Basel, Switzerland




Group shows (selection)


2019

Ian Anüll peinture en promo, Musée jurassien des arts, Moutier, France     

Furka kunst auf dem pass ab1983, Haus fur Kunst, Uri, Switzerland 

Friends, etc. La Collection Pierre Keller, Musee Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland

Alentour a project by John Armleder, Fondation Cab, Brussels, Belgium


2018

Nouvelles images, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland

Voyages en zigzag la collection d’Erwin Oberwiler, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Chaux-de Fonds, Switzerland

DOJO le temps de l’abstraction, Le Commun, Geneva, Switzerland

Double crème, Galerie Lange + Pult, Auvernier, Zurich, Switzerland


2017

Répliques : l’original à l’épreuve de l’art, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Chaux-de-Fonds, Ian Anüll peinture en promo, Haus fur Kunst, Uri, Switzerland


2016

Tous les tableaux sont à l’envers, Galerie Barnoud Entrêpot 9, Quetigny, France

Récit d’un temps court, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland


2015

Biens publics, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland

Print making by ECAL, Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland


2012

La ligne passée, Galerie Bernard Ceysson Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Tell the children, La Salle de Bain, Lyon, France


2009

Sept pièces faciles, Musée des Abattoirs, Le Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse, France


2008

Abstraction étendue, Espace de l'Art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux, France


2006

Peintures aller / retour, Centre Culturel Suisse, Paris, France Galerie Confer, Nyon, Switzerland


2001

Malerei, Galerie Eva Mack, Stuttgart, Germany


1999

bianco et nero, Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland


1998

gelb-rot-blau, Galerie Am See, Zoug, Switzerland

Le Trésor, (collection), Frac Bourgogne, Dijon, France

Swiss Contempory Art Exhibition, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea

Qu'est-ce que l'abstraction géométrique ? La réponse de 12 artistes, Musée Matisse, Cateau-Cambrésis, France


1997

Les formes du simple, Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France

La rayure, l'intervalle, le jour, Frac Nord Pas-de-Calais, Dunkerque, France

Regel und abweichung, Schweiz konstruktiv 1960-1997, Haus für konstruktive und konkrete kunst, Zürich, Switzerland


1996

Chez l'un, l'autre, Paris, France

Stiftung für Konkrete Kunst, Reutlingen, Germany

Histoires de Blanc et Noir, Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France


1994

Furkart 1994, Uri, Germany


1993

Peintures, Galerie Pierre Huber, Geneva, Switzerland


1992

Ecart show, Galerie Susanna Kulli, St-Gall, Switzerland

Blanc, Bleu, Noir, Institut Français de Naples, Naples, Italy


1991

Extra-Muros Art Suisse Contemporain, Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland

Septième Triennale de l'Inde, New Dehli, India


1990

Morellet, Soto, Floquet, Manz, des Gachons, Fraisse-des-Corbières, France


1988

John Armleder, Christian Floquet, Jean-Luc Manz, Christian Marclay, Olivier Mosset, Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany


1988

Ecart show, Galerie John Gibson, New York, United-States


1986

Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland

Œuvres choisies du FRAC de Bourgogne, Centre d'Art Contemporain, APAC, Nevers, France


1985

Filiale, Basel, Switzerland


1984

Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland

Artistes de Genève, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, Switzerland

2013

Christian Floquet - Engager la peinture, Arnauld Pierre, MAMCO


1990

Christian Floquet, from Catherine Queloz, Xavier Douroux, Eric Colliard, interview between Francis Baudevin and Christian Floquet, French edition 

CHRONICLE - La Galerie Ceysson & Bénétière conclut l'année avec trois expositions - 2019
CHRONICLE - JCA
November 29, 2019
Voir le fichier
L'ESSOR LOIRE - Christian Floquet, l'abstraction intuitive - D.B - 2017
L'ESSOR LOIRE - D.B.
April 28, 2017
Voir le fichier
LE PROGRÈS - Christian Floquet l'art minutieux d'un rapport frontal - 2017
LE PROGRÈS - Clément Goutelle
April 08, 2017
Voir le fichier
Christian Floquet - Exhibition, Saint Etienne
Christian Floquet - Exhibition, Saint Etienne
March 16, 2017