Cristof Yvoré
New Paintings
September 12 – October 24, 2009
“I do not do preliminary investigations, I do not look at illustrations, I do not copy a model. I just remember an earlier observed object…I contend with the idea of a signature, a style. I think about things as they are. I avoid penetrating the subject, or I abandon it.” – Cristof Yvoré
Michael Kohn Gallery is pleased to present new paintings by Marseille-based artist, Cristof Yvoré. Yvoré’s oeuvre has a sense of melancholy and loneliness that pervades each painting, while simultaneously linking itself to a grander history of art and philosophy. As though he were referencing French Existentialism, the lack of human presence is palpable and becomes a quality within the painting that, in turn, heightens the importance of the quotidian objects represented (i.e. the still life and the interior).
Yvoré’s focus on such traditional subjects as the still life and the quiet interior demonstrate his roots in the grander narrative of art history. Like Dutch painting of the 17th century, Yvoré’s work is also deeply self-reflective and conceptual. He reconsiders the figure and background several times, often changing them with successive, opaque layers of paint. The result is a thick crust over the canvas, forcing the viewer to be aware of the physicality of the painting. This style of representative painting positions Yvoré among such artists as Marlene Dumas, Michael Borremans and Luc Tuymans, with whom he exhibits his work at the Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp.
Cristof Yvoré was born in 1967 in Tours, France. He currently lives and works in Marseille, France. His work is part of the permanent collections at the Hudson Valley for Contemporary Art, New York, and the Museum Het Domein, Sittard, Netherlands.