The art world is in a phase of reuniting with drawing, a territory long kept at the outskirts. It is this re-conquered space at the heart of contemporary creation that the exhibition "Eloge du dessin" confirms.
Drawing - need we remind ourselves- doesn't only have a function as a study, sketch or preparatory exercise, it has become an adventure in its own right : the pleasure of delivering up an emotion, an idea, a vision, a sensation, under the forms carried as much by the logic of obsession as that of evanescence.

The sixteen artists presented here have a in common the dive into their interior world, in that limitless and obscure zone that give rise to thoughts,dreams, beliefs, myths and impulses. These incursions make up the matter of their drawings and proceed from that inner voice that inspires, in those capable of listening, the most troubling intuitions. Their style and influences are diverse. For some, drawing obeys to a spontaneous necessity to express oneself, that all normalizing attempt at socialization hasn't managed to stifle. For others, it has become sophisticated and savvy and translates the act by which the artistic will manifests itself.

These singular graphic propositions seduce us, surprise or disturb us. But whether they defy technical know-how, lay claim to it or subvert it, they do not work to serve or oppose artistic currents. On the contrary, they give rise, in the midst of their plurality, a game of echoes based on the intimate imperative of the experience of drawing.

"The draughtsman rejoices in the marvelous simplicity of his art that allows him to be content with a pen, indian ink and paper. He invents creatures, imagines and justifies impossible things. Disciplined, over the years he educates his eye, his hand and his character until progressively conceiving that celestial grace and innocence that can express everything with very few means. He thus unceasingly perfects the mastery of his art, to the point of becoming a living toy articulated to the tune of his spirit..."

A. Kubin