Francis-Olivier  BRUNET 1962-2018 

Painter. Originally from Haute-Savoie, he trained at the Beaux-Arts in Grenoble, Valence and Geneva. 

In the summer of 2021, when for the first time I went to the artist's studio guided by Muriel Bain, his widow, I remember sighing with lightness in a tragic context. The mark of Francis-Olivier Brunet was palpable. I had not had the chance to meet the painter during his lifetime, I found myself in his studio stunned by the importance of the work. 

We would like to thank his wife Muriel Bain and his children Yanis and Dimitri Brunet for their trust and their desire to transmit which allowed this project to take shape. 

Fahid Taghavi

“Rather enigmatic faces, a portrait of “The Holy Figure” or “Old Spaniard” so many paintings from which it is difficult to take your eyes off as the characters seem to call the viewer to witness. This confrontation quickly provokes reflection.

Francis-Olivier Brunet is a multiple artist who creates book illustrations as well as videos and paintings. He paints his figures in acrylic on paper in contrasting colors: red and white, red and gray, leaving the support blank in places. Sometimes he prefers a dark background, so the face of Christ appears even more pale. I was struck by the expressive look of the paintings but also by the compassion they provoked in me. 

Francis-Olivier Brunet gives an incredible presence to his models whose character he expresses in a personal work between figuration and abstraction, the essential being concentrated on the face and the gaze. We find this writing in the translation of the trees to which he gives a slightly reinvented reality. »

Nicole Lamothe

Winner of the Claire Combes Prize from the Taylor Foundation in 2014. He was previously distinguished by receiving the Paris-Pékin Prize in 1985 and the Prix de l'Institut National Genevois in 1996.

His work has been exhibited by numerous galleries in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Lithuania, his works are in private collections in Europe, China Peru, USA, New Zealand and in public collections City of Montélimar, Institut National Genevois and in Cantonal Fund of the City of Geneva.

You are invited on Thursday, December 29, 18:00 p.m., to the gallery. You will have the opportunity to see a  powerful hanging of works created between 2012 and 2017.

10 Rue de la Madeleine 1204 Geneva. 

Private visits on December 27-28, by appointment.

0041766109972

fahid@galeriefahidtaghavi.ch