Gérard GAROUSTE - Biography and artist's artworks

Gérard Garouste
Born in 1946 in Paris
Lives and works in Paris and Normandy
Gérard Garouste studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1965 to 1972
 
Gérard Garouste is a painter and sculptor. Since his early days, he has worked with references to art history and says that for him, ‘painting is thought passing through the hand.' From 1977 to 1982, he was a set designer and director for the theatre and nightclub Le Palace in Paris, where he created monumental sets and shows. His work is inspired by mythology, the great classical texts and universal themes. He sometimes combines sculptures and stage sets with his paintings, in which he works with chiaroscuro. He paints tormented, elusive, distorted characters, which are often self-portraits. He explores religious and ethical questions and draws inspiration from his study of the Talmud and the figure of the Golem for a series of paintings. He has created monumental works for commissions such as La Rosée for the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 1996. He practises engraving and illustrates texts with his drawings and gouaches. In 1991, he and his wife, designer Élisabeth Rochline-Garouste, founded La Source, an educational and social action association that helps vulnerable children flourish through access to art and culture.

Gérard Garouste said: ‘More and more, I seek timelessness. Avant-garde processes annoy me, and I take the most traditional painter's approach of creating self-portraits, using models and drawing inspiration from landscapes as a philosophy, a bit like Gandhi who made his own clothes with his spinning wheel.'