Francine Van Hove
Works of the artist
Francine Van Hove
Biography
Francine Van Hove was born in Paris in 1942.
From 1959 to 1962, she received an intense training in drawing and artistic anatomy while preparing her secondary school teaching certificate in drawing and plastic arts.
Appointed professor at the Strasbourg high school, she remained in her position less than two years, time enough to understand that the job did not suit her. She therefore resigned and returned to Paris where, in total isolation and gropingly, she developed the pictorial technique and themes that characterize her art.
She exhibits regularly since 1971.
Francine Van Hove’s work (black stone and pastel drawings and oil paintings)- is displayed in numerous private collections all over the world. As can be noted on the internet and on the social networks, it has cult status among connoisseurs.
The way I paint
«I draw and paint directly from life, nature and reality, as regards the characters and settings, and I do not conceive another approach,
no matter the constraints it brings.
I work five to six hours a day everyday at the least, as long as there is enough daylight. One painting requires two to three months
for its completion.
I always start off by drawing attitudes. The motion and gestures of the body are of prime importance. A lot of my paintings rest solely on the aesthetic interest of an everyday gesture which is timeless. Generally, the gestures which I choose to paint have been decided upon beforehand, and even jotted down in an “ideas notebook“ when they first occured to me. I then ask several of my models in succession to strike up these attitudes, these gestures, to improvise on the theme: the model’s talent is really decisive.
Some motions are meaningless to some of the girls, so I have to compose with it and create something slighlty different.
Sometimes the model contributes with a good idea of her own, which is very welcome.
My models are an important part of my life as a painter. They are necessarily very different from me, I could be their mother. I never had their luminous complexion anyhow. But their attitudes and gestures have to be close to mine and enable me to identify with them. I am the one who sleeps when they sleep in the painting, the one who holds the bowl when they are drinking coffee, the one who reads their book. Above all, we share the same feeling of tranquil solitude in the privacy of my apartment or in my garden in the countryside.
Once the attitude is set down in a drawing, I am extremely faithful to it even if I have to change the scale or to integrate the figure within a group or an interior that I had previously drawn.
My themes are limited in number and they are not at all intellectual. Essentially, it is about small, simple moments of happiness slightly nostalgic when time stands still. One should not expect that I express any anguish at the cruelty of the present world : I paint against the angst as a matter of fact, and to help live in harmony.»
FVH
EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES
- 1978 – Galerie Morantin-Nouvion, Paris
- 1982 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1984 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1986 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1987 – FIAC. Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1989 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1991 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1993 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1995 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1997 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 1999 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 2000 – Villa Beatrix Enea, Mairie d’Anglet
- 2001 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 2003 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 2005 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
- 2007 – Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris
PRINCIPALES EXPOSITIONS DE GROUPE
- 1981 à 1994 – FIAC, Paris
- 1982 – Foire Internationale de Chicago
- 1983 – 1984 – International Art Expo, Stockholm
- 1985 – Musée Paul Valéry, Sète
- 1986 – Arte Fiera, Bologne, ICAF, Los Angeles, Galerie Hartcourts Contemporary, San Francisco
- 1988 – IGI 88, New York
- 1989 – Lineart, Gand
- 1989 – 1990 – Exposition France-Japon, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka
- 1989 – “Le patio en Septembre”, Mairie d’Anglet
- 1990 – Salon de Mars, Paris, Lineart, Gand
- 1991 à 1994 – Salon de Mars, Paris
- 1993 – ArtMiami, Miami
- 1994 – “Jardins d’été”, Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris, 3e et 4e Triennale “Les nouveaux pastellistes”
- 1998 – ArtChicago, Chicago
- 2000 – Salon “Pavillon des Antiquaires et des Beaux-Arts”, Paris
- 2016 – Galerie L’Oeil du Prince