Thibault Barrere

Mentoring Emerging Artists
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MEDIUM: Oil Paint | Graphite Art | Sanguine | Sepia
SPECIALTY: ✔ Technical

In the middle of the Baroque era, the Frenchman André Félibien, establishes in writing the genres of painting and their classification. Still lifes were the most basic genre, followed by landscapes, one step above were portraits, and at the top of this hierarchy we find historical paintings. This genre sought to portray and glorify great historical events, religious parables, passages from mythology, ideas from philosophy, scenes from literature, and poetry in the form of allegories. The artist’s goal was to create something majestic, which also managed to convey a moral or intellectual message; he sought to awaken the mind of his audience, provoke and question it.

The execution of a work of this type implied the integration of all the other genres coexisting in harmony within a single canvas, however, the complexity of making a historical painting goes beyond technique and aesthetics. These paintings capture the human essence in its best and worst moments, they are a constant reminder of what we were and are, the stories that shaped us, the ones that have brought us to this day. These paintings are somehow the most important pages in the diary of humanity, and with my work I want to be part of them.

My work takes up mythological, religious, philosophical, allegorical and historical scenes, to provide a new interpretation of them. These themes, always timeless, continue to be relevant, and I would venture to say that now more than ever. Its primary objective is to create a dialogue with its observer, and generate awareness about the way in which men act and live, and for me this will be the work of a lifetime.