Richard Texier - Biography

Richard Texier develops his work, often monumental, both in sculpture and painting.


Born in Niort in 1955, Texier spends his winters in the Marais Poitevin and his summers in Sables-d'Olonne, where his parents run a bazaar.

The milking of a cow at the end of the day is at the origin, at the age of 9, of his artistic vocation. The milk of two cans overturned by the child mixed with the black water of a conch forms like a milky way. This image triggered his desire to create:
"Perhaps I became a sculptor that day by methodically squeezing the teats of cows. My recent works owe something to this gelatino-erotic activity. The sensual mystery of fluid mechanics always inspires the mental activity of artists.

The ocean is one of the central themes of his inspiration. Until 1989, he used various objects recovered from the coastline (corroded zinc, driftwood, rusty iron, debris and fragments) in his works. After primary school in Niort, he discovered art in the sixth grade thanks to the Lagarde et Michard where a painting by Yves Tanguy, "Jour de silence", confirmed his desire to paint.

Richard Texier is a "traumatised of space" as he likes to define himself. His need for large terrestrial spaces of creation joins the nomadism of which he claims. His painting speaks of the world, of the cosmos, of the difficulty of each one to find his bearings in the complexity of the universe: "To paint is to stir the matter of the world, it is to sink two hands in the jar of the universe and to tickle the mystery of the world". The spinning top, present in almost all his paintings, embodies the mobility of all things.

1967, he became fascinated by surrealist experiments and produced his first paintings, then moved to Paris to study architecture, frequented museums assiduously and discovered primitive and Flemish painting.

1976, leaves for the United States, but keeps a studio in Paris until 1983.

1977, one year after his architecture thesis, wrote "Constructions from Nature".

1981, defended his doctoral thesis in plastic arts, "Lune" and "Paysage", and obtained the mention "Très bien".

1985, organizes his first traveling exhibition in four French museums. The Fonds national d'art contemporain de Paris acquires one of his works for the first time.

1988, the French State commissions a monumental work on Human Rights. "La suite des Droits de l'Homme", at the time the most important state commission given to the Royal Manufacture of Aubusson, includes seven tapestries whose weaving is executed by hand by 67 master weavers during seven months.

1991, adopts a wilder technique, paints a series of works on burnt isorel and bitumen paper: materials that he mistreats, scratches and tears. A year later, his sculptures composed of mythical objects made of wood, riveted sheet metal, bronze and hemp rope were exhibited for the first time in Paris. He also holds a nomadic workshop at the Pavilion of Culture in Moscow.

1994, realizes his first monumental sculpture in bronze "Toupie nomade", then, the year after, "L'invention du monde, Machines à éclipses, Mécaniques à lorgner" (wall pieces and small sculptures with diverted objects of use, assembled with bronze, lead, wood and glass).

1996, the French State commissions three monumental tapestries from him.


Since 2000

2002, paints and stays in New-York, then a nomadic workshop of three months embarks him at the Cordouan lighthouse as an official painter of the Navy.

2004, he painted the academic sword of his friend Zao Wou-Ki.  Nomadic workshop in Shanghai. Fervent welcome in China where he creates huge sculptures and paintings, notably Spirit of Time, a monumental sculpture for the largest avenue in Shanghai.

2007 to 2013, numerous exhibitions in Asia. Hong Kong, Shanghai, Rangoon.

2013 Installation of 11 monumental sculptures on Orchard Road in Singapore.

2015, Gallimard publishes "Nager" by Richard Texier, followed in 2017 by his fictional work "Le Grand M", followed in 2018, still published by Gallimard, by "Zao", in which Richard Texier reveals his friendship with Zao Wou-ki: from their meeting in Morocco in the early nineties to the death of the Chinese painter in 2013.

2018, Publication of the "Manifesto of Elastogenesis" by Fata Morgana. Filming of a documentary on the artist and his concept of "Elastogenesis".

2019, Presentation in Paris, Downtown Gallery, of a selection of everyday sculptures from the bestiary created by the artist for over thirty years. Publication by Gallimard of "L'Hypothèse du ver luisant".

2021, Edition with Yoyo Maeght of a print. Link here.