François Rouan, protean painter, and his unique “imprints” at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon

"Whether painting card players, apples or small geometric tiles, whoever enters into the experience of the painting ventures into a labyrinthine experience," François Rouan confided to Le Monde in 1991. The current exhibition dedicated to him at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon is a striking demonstration of this. Fortunately, curators Isabelle Monod-Fontaine and Sylvie Ramond have chosen a guiding thread by basing their entire exhibition, around 130 works, on 11 clearly defined sections that share the theme of the imprint. However, the man is not simple, and his work even less so. Perhaps it is enough just to look at the paintings, but not superficially: deeply, taking one's time, returning to them often. Then, but only then, do they end up distilling their venom. Be careful, it can have aphrodisiac effects...

The imprint is as old as humanity itself: that of a hand coated in color and placed on the wall of a cave by one of our ancestors from the Paleolithic period, for example. It is also very contemporary, if we recall the "Anthropométries" by Yves Klein (1928-1962), who coated nude models with blue paint, which they then placed on a canvas.

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