"Rester libre is the title we wanted to give to this exhibition, because in the artist's latest works we have sensed an even greater freedom, both in the choice of themes and in the pictorial gesture. Is this related to the urgency of the situation, or to the passage of time? We don't know, but the message Franta conveys through his brushstrokes is richly layered, carrying anger and outcry, but also tenderness, exchange and hope. When you've been practicing humanity for almost a century, when you've known and experienced the atrocities of war in your own flesh, and when you see how quickly people forget and learn few lessons for the future, it's admirable to continue to strive to transform horror into beauty. It is this exemplary energy that Franta has carried in his work for so many years, the energy that denounces, but also the energy that proposes another path: that of living together, sharing and fraternity. When you can paint or sculpt mass graves as deeply as you can embrace bodies, you have embraced life, in all its atrocities and wonders. Franta shows us a way, through his work and his life as an artist, he helps us not to look away, he digs in us a furrow that makes us a little more human." Laura and Denis Capazza-Durand, extract from the exhibition catalog |
The gallery is open on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays
10h - 12h30 / 14h30-19h
and by appointment all year around