Thierry Lefort - by Jean-Christophe Grangé

 

Thierry Lefort

by Jean-Christophe Grangé

Usually, a painter's works bring back memories. Adored landscapes, emotions felt... With Thierry Lefort, I experienced the inverse process. It was Los Angeles that reminded me of his paintings. It was the city that delighted my emotion for his paintings. Visiting the City of Angels last summer, I realized that the artist, with brushstrokes, had, so to speak, forewarned me, introduced me to this specific world. His work is a wonderful antechamber, a siren's warning...

Winding roads, flexible and fluid palm trees, porous light... Everything was there, in West Hollywood or on Mulholland Drive, but everything had already been offered to me in his studio. Thierry Lefort's paintings are not mere representations: they are delicate tracings, ethereal quintessences of what one will experience in situ, on location...

Needless to say, I prefer the artwork to the giant city, the canvas to the asphalt, the paintbrush to the palm trees... We always prefer the dream to reality, and Lefort's works are like premonitory dreams. They don't need to come true; they are imprinted on our retinas, inscribed in our hearts.

Thank you, Thierry, to you and your elegant paintings. I never thought I could still feel such emotion in front of a contemporary work of art. I delight each time in diving into your universe, both sunny and maritime, where trees float like seaweed, and sidewalks glisten with light... You force us to look up and savor the best of our world.