Philippe Decrauzat

Philippe Decrauzat (born 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland) creates optical effects that let the surface of the painting vibrate through pure painterly means and a subdued color palette. Decrauzat borrows elements from Minimalism, Constructivism, experimental film, popular culture, and Op Art. He brings these together to form complex visual compositions in his paintings, wall works, sculptures, installations, films, and printed ephemera. Decrauzat’s approach is often associated with a younger generation of artists from the French-speaking part of Switzerland who have developed a new, conceptually based Concretism combined with narrative structures. In his works, he takes the pictorial vocabulary of Minimalism, Constructivism, and Op Art and puts it in a new context, giving it a narrative or metaphorical twist. He thus lends works textile-like features by integrating moiré structures, or he dynamically encircles a white or black center field with configurations of lines and bands of different width. The structure of the dynamic lines occasionally also defines the outlines of the canvases, blurring the boundaries between painting and object. The congruence here between content and form thus reminds us of Frank Stella’s shaped canvases.
Decrauzat’s works are influenced by many different sources. They combine psychedelic aspects with conceptual Minimalism, or they bring experimental cinema together with aesthetic references to Op Art. Philippe Decrauzat’s interest in Op Art derives not least from its focus on “objectivity” and the disappearance of the artist as author. His works are based on complex references – often to stories that he researches in advance.
The artist selects his forms and motifs based on their visual and spatial qualities. These qualities, which vaguely reveal their origins from graphic design, advertising, lounge aesthetic, and architecture, are then played out against each other in a dynamic interaction.

Dominique von Burg