French visual artist
Biography
A French visual artist, VITA has been creating original works deeply rooted in our society for forty years. Art brut painting, monumental in its formats and in its expressive force.
A practice sustained over time
VITA has been painting for forty years. This constancy is not repetition: it is a way of inhabiting the world, of returning again and again to the same questions with ever new answers.
The works gathered in this catalogue, several of them dated 1981 and 1982, bear witness to an already assertive language: elemental forms, unmixed colours, a line that is never corrected. They form the core of a body of work that the studio is now documenting piece by piece.
The works gathered in this catalogue, several of them dated 1981 and 1982, bear witness to an already assertive language: elemental forms, unmixed colours, a line that is never corrected. They form the core of a body of work that the studio is now documenting piece by piece.
Art brut and the freedom of the gesture
VITA’s work belongs to the field of art brut: a form of creation that seeks neither the approval of academic codes nor the seduction of skill. Here, the gesture comes before the rule.
Spirals drawn in a single movement, accumulated circles, flat areas of colour laid down without second thoughts: painting happens in the present tense, out of urgency and necessity. This freedom is not an absence of form; it is another kind of rigour, that of immediate rightness.
Spirals drawn in a single movement, accumulated circles, flat areas of colour laid down without second thoughts: painting happens in the present tense, out of urgency and necessity. This freedom is not an absence of form; it is another kind of rigour, that of immediate rightness.
Painting society
The titles say it plainly: Politic, Technocracy, War, Humanity, World Community, Disparity. VITA’s painting looks society in the face — its powers, its fractures, its solidarities.
Yet it does not illustrate it. It translates its tensions into visual forces: the closed loop of a system, the shattering of a space, a crowd held within a circle. The subject is never described; it is made tangible.
Yet it does not illustrate it. It translates its tensions into visual forces: the closed loop of a system, the shattering of a space, a crowd held within a circle. The subject is never described; it is made tangible.
Monumentality
VITA’s paintings measure between 1.6 and 5 metres. Facing them, viewers no longer dominate the image: they step into it. Scale turns line into architecture and colour into environment.
This monumentality is not an effect. It extends the reach of a gesture that engages the whole body, and gives the simplest forms — a circle, a spiral, a line — the force of an event.
This monumentality is not an effect. It extends the reach of a gesture that engages the whole body, and gives the simplest forms — a circle, a spiral, a line — the force of an event.
Material, power, presence
Pigments laid in bold layers, paper that keeps the memory of the gesture, contrasts pushed to saturation: in VITA’s work, material is never neutral. It carries the trace of the time of making.
This is why these works ask to be seen in person. Reproductions convey their composition; only their physical presence conveys their scale, the vibration of their colours and their undiminished energy.
This is why these works ask to be seen in person. Reproductions convey their composition; only their physical presence conveys their scale, the vibration of their colours and their undiminished energy.
The artist, institutions and collectors
A monumental work involves a relationship: with the place that hosts it, and with the person or institution that becomes its guardian. VITA’s original paintings are presented on request, in direct dialogue with the gallery.
Documentation, condition report, shipping and installation arrangements, exhibition loans: every acquisition receives personal support.
Documentation, condition report, shipping and installation arrangements, exhibition loans: every acquisition receives personal support.
A place in the history of contemporary art
Ever since Jean Dubuffet coined the notion of art brut in the mid-twentieth century, this territory has kept questioning art history: what is a work when it escapes schools, fashions and lineages?
VITA’s painting extends this question on a monumental scale and in direct contact with contemporary society. The ongoing documentation work — exhibitions, collections, publications — will make it possible to trace this path precisely; every reference will be published with its source.
VITA’s painting extends this question on a monumental scale and in direct contact with contemporary society. The ongoing documentation work — exhibitions, collections, publications — will make it possible to trace this path precisely; every reference will be published with its source.
Key facts
- Artist name
- VITA ART
- Nationality
- French
- Movement
- Contemporary art brut
- Practice
- Forty years of creation
- Formats
- Monumental paintings, from 1.6 to 5 metres