Manuel Dampeyroux
France
Currently residing in Montpellier, I practice drawing and painting in a singular way. My personal art production begins at about the age of five. My first major artistic influence was the discovery at the age of fourteen of the cinema of the new Hollywood. The viewing of these films was an important aesthetic shock because their work was thematic complex, formally innovative, morally ambiguous, and rich in mythical resonance.
The new Hollywood has seen the birth of some of the greatest directors and works in the history of cinema where immorality and extreme violence, previously censored by the Hays code, mingle in twilight and desperate stories. Ambiguity, the realistic vision of individuals and their problems, the willingness to explore the depths of the human soul and the use of anti-heroes are themes that stand out in my pictorial work.
Graduate of a Master in Contemporary Plastic Practices at the University Paul Valéry III of
Montpellier, I also give courses in academic drawing at a private higher institution of interior architecture and disgn in Montpellier (ESDAC). I also organize oil painting workshops where we talk about "painting the light". My personal artistic practice is natural, almost daily. Artistic creation is for me a strong conviction, a passion. For a few years, I also practice photography and video. My major pictorial influences are the following painters: Jan Van Eyck, Edvard Munch, Vilhelm Hammershoi, Edouard Manet, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Caravaggio & Raphael.
I am also a reader of poems, especially the poetry of the second half of the 19th century (Rimbaud-Baudelaire-Verlaine-Sully Prudhomme).
* This statement has been provided directly by the artist in association to their 16th International ARC Salon entries. This content has not been edited for typos or grammatical errors and has not been vetted for accuracy.
