Ceysson & Bénétière

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 

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, Switzerland
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, Switzerland

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, Bruxelles, 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, France

Tilman Fesler & Coufo Art Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium

1989
Sous-sol, Ecole Supérieure d'Art Visuel, Geneva,

1988
Galerie Georges Verney-Carron, Villeurbanne, France

1987
Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva

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

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, Switzerland

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 Luxemburg, 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 Switzerland, 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 Switzerland 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, USA

1986
Galerie Marika Malacorda, Geneva, Switzerland

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

1985
Filiale, Bâle, Switzerland

1984
Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland
Artistes de Geneva, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne, Switzerland

Christian Floquet, Text by Catherine Queloz, Xavier Douroux, Eric Colliard, interview between Francis Baudevin and Christian Floquet, 1990, édition française

Christian Floquet - Engager la peinture, Arnauld Pierre, MAMCO, 2013