Frédéric Poincelet has invited twenty-one artists to present a work—and sometimes several works—on the theme of the bouquet. The bouquets are exhibited on the walls, in a dense, rich, and heterogeneous display.

‘The silent beauty of flowers’, and, by association, the ephemeral splendour of nature, the fragility of human life, and vanity—it is this hackneyed theme of the still life that Frédéric Poincelet has chosen in order to go beyond the very issue of the subject. And this is what interests him: to showcase drawing as an art in itself, without making statements, leaving it unadulterated as the foremost element of the work and this approach. This is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, which is evident in the very title of the exhibition, ‘Des fleurs pour Valentin’ (‘Flowers for Valentine’). One accepts the cliché, the convention of the bouquet, and the idea behind the exhibition, together with the language of flowers and their symbolism, and even the customary climax of the programmed love and affection of Saint Valentine’s Day, on 14 February, the date chosen for the exhibition’s vernissage. 

Frédéric Poincelet, who is an experienced curator—an activity he has been involved in for several years through editorial work and the associated exhibitions organised by Frédéric Magazine—has coordinated this ensemble, which he has exploited and tried to mould, as part of his approach. Each artist, in attempting to address one theme, has tackled another, as no one is under any illusions about their contribution to the project, and even about how a draughtsman tackles this non-subject. Showcasing contemporary drawing—to be understood in a broader sense that also includes engraving and watercolour—is something that Frédéric Poincelet finds very interesting and stimulating.

The attention paid to the work of the exhibited artists, some of whom have made this motif a recurrent theme in their work, led to a desire to bring together artists’ ‘bouquets’ and add his message: the aim is to create a dialogue between the drawings—which have many objectives—, like a single language.

Most of the works are original works created for the exhibition, while other, older works were brought together for the project, such as a 1942 work in Indian ink by Geneviève Asse, a 1995 engraving by David Hockney, and a lithograph by Bernard Buffet. Amongst the artists invited to take part in the exhibition are figures from the worlds of illustration and comic books—Blutch, Floc’h, François Olislaeger, and Fabio Viscogliosi—, and draughtsmen and painters: Abdelkader Benchamma, Marc Desgranchamps, Stéphane Calais, Tal R, and Cristof Yvoré.

Geneviève Asse
Born in 1923 in Vannes, she lives and works in Paris and on the Ile aux Moines.
She is a major figure in French painting. Geneviève Asse—who has never belonged to a school or been part of movement, and does not follow fashions—practises painting, drawing, and engraving. Her work is represented in major French public collections, and in recent years the Centre Pompidou and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon have held solo exhibitions of her work.

Abdelkader Benchamma
Born in 1975 in Mazamet, he lives and works in Montpellier and Paris.
His main medium is drawing; he transforms space and shifts reality, playing with the intrusion of the invisible. A large part of his oeuvre consists of mural drawings.
He won the Drawing Now Prize in 2015 and took up residency in the Villa Medici at the end of 2018.

Ugo Bienvenu
Born in 1987, he lives and works in Paris.
He is a director of short films and video clips in France and abroad. He is also the author of graphic novels, including Paiement accepté (published by Éditions Denoël Graphic), and an illustrator, who is sought after in the fashion world because of the visionary and overtly sexual world of science fiction that he creates in his work.

Blutch
Born in Strasbourg in 1967, he lives and works in Paris.
He is considered to be one of the most prominent French comic book authors since the beginning of the 1990s. In 2009, he received the Grand Prix de la Ville d’Angoulême, which was awarded during the International Comic Book Festival for his entire oeuvre, and chaired the 2010 edition. A major retrospective exhibition of his work will be held in March 2019 in several museums in the city of Strasbourg.

Bernard Buffet
He was born on 10 July 1928 in Paris and died in 1999 in Tourtour in the Var region.
A painter, watercolourist, illustrator, and engraver, he tackled a wide variety of themes: portraits, animals, landscapes, and still lifes. He also designed stage sets.
The Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris held a major retrospective of his work in 2017.

Stéphane Calais
Born in 1967 in Arras, he lives and works in Paris.
He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes from 1987 to 1992 and then at the Institut des Hautes Études en Arts Plastiques in Paris. He was nominated for the Prix Fondation Entreprise Ricard in 2008 and the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2009. His work, which deals with forms and their representation, is represented in various private collections in France and abroad, and in several museums, including the Centre Pompidou. He is also works intermittently as an exhibition curator and art critic. He has been a lecturer at the Rijksakademie, in Amsterdam, since 2008.

Julien Carreyn
Born in Angers in 1973, he lives and works in Paris
After working as an artistic director, he redirected his attention to the production of images, drawings, and photographs. He has since applied himself with much perseverance, and somewhat obsessively, to the production of an increasingly dense corpus, exploring subjects as varied as his transversal culture of the image, which encompasses erotic comic books from the 1970s as well as Impressionist painting and children’s illustrations. He is represented by the Galerie Crèvecœur, in Paris.

Marc Desgrandchamps
Born in 1960 in Sallanches, he lives and works in Lyon.
He is a French painter and engraver. Two retrospectives of his work have been held in recent years in major French institutions, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. He is represented by the Galerie Lelong & Co.

Frédéric Fleury
Born in 1973, he lives and works in Dunkirk.
He is a draughtsman and illustrator. He is a founding member of Éditions du 57 (a small and independent art book publishing house) and Frédéric Magazine (both a collective of artists devoted to drawing and an eponymous Internet site). He regularly collaborates with Chronic’art, Vice Magazine, and Jalouse.

Floc’h
Born in 1953 in Mayenne, he lives and works in Paris.
A prominent illustrator and comic book artist, he is one of the key advocates of the ‘ligne claire’ or ‘clear line’ drawing style. He has also produced many posters for the cinema, and has worked with the press and advertising agencies. Many books have been written about his work as an illustrator and his timeless radicalism.

José Maria Gonzalez
Born in 1960, he lives and works in Paris.
He is a draughtsman and painter. He co-founded the group Banlieue-banlieuein the 1980s, and the contemporary drawing journal Rouge Gorge. He has had several books published by Éditions Solo ma non troppo, including the recent Fétiches et autres dessins de genre.

David Hockney
He was born on 9 July 1937 in Bradford in the UK.
He is a portraitist and landscape painter, draughtsman, engraver, stage designer, photographer, and an art theorist. After spending a large part of his life in California, he lives and works between Yorkshire, his native county, and London.
He was a major figure in the Pop Art movement in the 1960s, and one of the most influential painters of the twentieth century. He is represented by the Galerie Lelong & Co.

Roxane Lumeret
Born in 1988, she lives and works in Strasbourg.
She is a draughtswoman and children’s author: On pense à toi cheval and L’enciellement de maman, published by Éditions Albin Michel, and Coup de frein sur la côte, a comic book published by Les Requins Marteaux.

Gosia Machon
She was born in 1979 in Pszczyna in Poland. She lives, studies, and works in Ellwangen and Pforzheim (Germany), Hamburg, Istanbul, and Tel Aviv.
A draughtswoman and painter, she has written twenty art books, mainly on drawing, between 2007 and 2018.

Frédéric Malette
Born in 1978, he lives and works in Nantes. He graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Lorient. Drawing is his main means of expression; he uses graphite and black lead, and often works with tracing paper. He questions our humanity and our relations with others, by putting into perspective our Mediterranean roots, family history, history, and contemporary society.
He is represented by the Galerie Catherine Putman.

Antoine Marquis
Born in 1974, he lives and works in Paris.
Exhibited at the Galerie Benoit Lecarpentier, and subsequently in the Crèvecœur and Semiose galleries, his drawings are inspired by the history of art, outdated conventions, and the styles he adopts—a way of saying that he readily embraces and incorporates all of them through his drawings.

Agathe May
Born in 1956 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, she lives and works in Montreuil.
She graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1979. Agathe May’s work, which initially involves drawing and then takes on its final form in engraving, begins with a process of seeing and observing. Her engravings are inked like paintings, hand printed, assembled, glued together, and heightened. Each of the artist’s prints is a unique work—an image that is reinvented each time.
She is represented by the Galerie Catherine Putman.

François Olislaeger
Born in 1978 in Liège (Belgium), he lives and works in Paris.
He is a draughtsman and press cartoonist (he regularly produces drawings for Le Monde, Libération, Les Inrockuptibles, Beaux Arts magazine, Charlie Hebdo, Transfuge, le JDD, Le Soir in Belgium, and Internazionale in Italy). A comic book author and graphic ‘performer’, he is influenced by other artistic disciplines such as dance, the theatre, music, and contemporary art.
In 2018, he held the exhibition ‘Une fleur par jour’at the Galerie du Jour Agnès b.

Tal R
Born in Israel in 1967, he lives and works in Copenhagen (Danemark).
He is one of the most prominent Danish contemporary artists. He practises painting, engraving, sculpture, and so on. Tal R often uses the Hebrew word ‘kolbojnik’—leftovers—to describe his art; he is inspired by everyday life, pop culture, and his travels, and there is no hierarchisation of materials and forms. A major monographic exhibition of his work, ‘Academy of Tal R’,was held in 2017 at the Louisina Museum in Copenhagen, and at the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.

Fabio Viscogliosi
Born in 1965 in Oullins (Rhône) to Italian parents, he lives and works in Lyon.
He is a French artist, writer, draughtsman, and musician. He has published books of drawings, children’s albums, and comic books. The author of three novels published by Éditions Stock and pop music records, his diverse and multifaceted plastic oeuvre was recently exhibited at the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Lyon and in several galleries.

Cristof Yvoré
1967–2013
Cristof Yvoré began with memorised images in which recognisable clichés were simplified. These still lifes, which Yvoré painted over many years and for which he always refused to provide a theoretical context, appear to be without any form of contemporary influence. The worn state of these objects and the sensation of superficiality conveyed by them was Yvoré’s point of departure.