Ludovic Dervillez (born in 1973) is a French abstract painter living and working near Reims. Trained at the École Supérieure d'Art et de Design de Reims, he develops a pictorial practice based on action, decision and the relationships that are established between forms, traces, matter and space.
My work explores gesture, space, the relationships between interventions, and what allows a painting to hold together. I don't seek to connect everything or resolve everything.
The organization is built in action, through swift and tense gestures, whose weight varies according to their density and the place they occupy in the painting. I proceed by successive decisions, in a movement that is often rapid, sharp and direct, sometimes sparse or almost residual.
Painting doesn't have to demonstrate virtuosity. Over time, I've sought to achieve a kind of detachment in the act of painting. It's not about relinquishing control, but about reaching a point where it's sufficiently acquired that it no longer influences every decision.
The action then becomes more immediate, more natural, less self-conscious. The gesture gains in freedom and fluidity, without losing its precision or tension.
Mastery lies as much in decision-making as in restraint. Choosing a color, a medium, an intensity, intervening, then knowing when to stop. What matters to me is how each intervention affects the whole and modifies what is already there, without systematically trying to resolve the relationships between the elements.
The signs can maintain very different degrees of presence. Some are assertive, others almost secondary. They do not necessarily need to respond to each other or form a perfectly unified whole.
My aim is to prevent the painting from becoming self-contained. I seek to maintain a tension without overloading it, to allow the viewer to move freely and thus maintain a feeling of openness and freedom.
© Photographer: Xavier Lavictoire
