To explore the traces left in our lives by the passage of time: such is the intention of Paul Béliveau’s art.
The advent of a new body of work by this painter reveals a greater depth in his vision of the action of time. The series Les Éphémères adds another dimension to this quest. He has adopted a new pictorial model that offers him a fresh viewpoint to explore layers of reference hitherto compressed within the format of books. This series reinforces his technique of dissection and examination and opens a brand-new perspective on the working of time. He approaches the erosion of matter as a metaphor for the disintegration of memory, presenting matter and memory in a unique way.
Béliveau embarked on this exploration earlier in his short series, but with Les Éphémères he demonstrates a new source of inspiration. Once again he juxtaposes images that, when brought together, evoke something other than themselves. Time is still the main theme, but here it is seen in its traces on beings and things, and also in its bite.
In Les Éphémères we also find the contrast between the sublime and the fallen, the space of time, sometimes so short, between these two poles. Things exist and then disappear, and we cannot hold on to them. Everything passes. But there remain the signs of this passing, the marks of time imprinted on the canvas.
The interplay or collusion of the images and words superimposed on the canvas constitute the formal connection linking this series to the ongoing series on the theme of books. The latter, however, is in process of transformation. Initially entitled Les humanitiés and then Les rencontres, it reappears under the new title Vanitas. This Latin word, meaning “vanity”, refers to a particular category of still-life paintings, allegorical compositions implying that all existence on earth is empty and meaningless and human life uncertain and futile. Works of this kind are full of skulls, hour glasses, musical instruments, scientific apparatus and books. With Vanitas Béliveau updates the genre.
In his work he uses today’s resources to propose ways of responding to the predicament of modern man, summed up in the title of a work by Gauguin: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
In Béliveau’s oeuvre, this question takes on a more specific meaning. What is the value of things, since they are fated to disappear? What lasts? Can what we love defy time? What remains when everything is gone? Is it our pride in existence that prevents us from grasping the essence of life? In his paintings the artist takes us back to the personal emotion aroused by this disintegration. Les Éphémères is an ode to beauty that is fleeting and to the marks it leaves on us.
Like the greyhounds that used to run across his canvases, Béliveau feels he is running in a race against the clock, which is given concrete expression in the production process he has deliberately put in place. Time is a raw material that must be used carefully, for it is non- renewable. Creativity is required to make the most of it.
The challenge is transposed to the means devised to beat the clock. Using the Internet to rummage through its huge library of images. Manipulating the tools of computerization to define and draw the outlines of the model. Resorting to the arsenal of computer technology to support the painter’s hand. This operating context intensifies the relevance and the integrity of the artwork.
Producing in time. Respecting exhibition deadlines, supplying the galleries. Measuring out time by the stages of production. Imagining the work. Designing it. Making it in its concrete format. Packing it up and sending it. Installing it on the gallery walls. Producing by hand, by many hands, executing the work in time and against time. Using craftsmanship to create techniques that will render the subject simply and quickly. Here too it is a matter of the fight against time. Remaining patient while producing, but also impatient to see the end result. This battle against time brings the preoccupation with time into the very heart of the creative mechanism.
When urged, Paul Béliveau acknowledges that a lasting work is one that is formed over time. Each day becomes the place to be explored. Everything comes back to the work to be created. The outcome is always to be invented. Nothing can be taken for granted. Everything is called into question every time.
What do Les Éphémères and Vanitas have in common? The aim to make matter speak in impasto and liquid pigment. To make glossy and matte colour speak. To make the polished and the torn speak. To speak of flesh and water. To speak of vegetable and mineral. To speak of the richness of colours and the power of the monochrome. To speak of culture. To speak of nature. To speak of history. To speak of the present. To speak of us and our relationship to life. To speak of what moves us and transforms us. To speak of what breaks us and revives us.
The mainspring of this new series, what sparked it, was emotion. Recalling the fragility of life, when compared to the life force. The trigger for a sense of urgency. Powerlessness in the face of events. The impulse to create as a response to the undermining effects of time.
To outlast time: that is surely the goal of Paul Béliveau’s project. And in so doing, he formulates that desire to live forever which every human being secretly cherishes.
