Robert Deschênes est né à Montréal en 1950. Artiste pluridisciplinaire, il n’a de cesse de s’interroger sur l’art, ses techniques, ses styles, ses langages. Par l’installation, la performance et surtout la peinture, il transpose ses émotions et sa vision de la vie sur la toile, le papier, le carton, le verre, la carrosserie des voitures, les murs de briques, les corps humains. Ses œuvres trahissent un vécu artistique intense, sans compromis, d’un artiste dont la production s’étale sur des décennies sans jamais faiblir.

« Je peins sur la toile des explosions de couleurs aux allures de feux d’artifice et de brasiers déchaînés. Paradoxalement, certaines œuvres suscitent une sensation de légèreté et de fluidité, invite à la contemplation. Apparaissent alors des paysages abstraits, des monts surgissant de la brume, des portraits déchirants d’humanisme. Des éclats de lumière permettent parfois d’apaiser mes peurs et réveillent les sourires candides de l’enfance. » 
 

Painting is the art of silence. 

 

Breath, scream, word, phrase, discourse are different steps that mark the evolution of the human being. But of image, stroke, stain, shadow and light, what can be said? They are the subtle disclosure of a feeling sketched on walls aiming to preserve the imprint of life, a life more in tune with one’s inner silence than with speech. I always feel words are inadequate to express this. Especially since my paintings represent the strength of fate, the energy of despair, born out of pure imagination and, although they are figurative, their only aim is to express the wordless existence. Questioning the origin of man, my work is a visual representation of his self-attachment, alludes to the soul, the depth of being, the subconscious or inner consciousness. My paintings, as a whole, are the expression of a totemic system that is an integral part of the secret thought that makes up their fabric. In a certain way, I am trying to expose the human being’s inner symbolic dimension. Light plays an essential part as it reminds us of hope and of the ingenuousness inherent to childhood. Shadows are as menacing as fear and distress. In a sort of controlled casualness, my work alludes to the sensitivity of the being in a state of flux. My paintings tend to exist rather than appear. Therefore, I invite you to enter the human being’s inner dimension, wherein lies his aspirations and desires, his fears and beliefs. 

I create each painting as if I was walking this earthly soil for the very last time, in a spontaneous gesture, with fury and passion. I have been thrown out of a window. I am both man and fire. Because I dive head first into what I feel, the canvas reflects innocence, reveals the intensity of the moment. Understanding the profundity of life, one lives with a certain sense of wonder.  

I am like the Neanderthal man or the Cro-Magnon man, archaic, without false modesty, a hunter, cautious, raw, as thick as a brick, clever, patient, naïve and proud. I am one hundred thousand years old.