Thomas Bossard’s solo exhibition “Human Comedy” on view May 1-May 31 2023
Tell us about your beginnings in painting.
From the very beginning, my parents exposed me to art, they read a lot and were interested in theater and cinema. They were open-minded which allowed me to share my impressions and emotions with them. When my mother took me to museums, she always told me to open my eyes wide. For her, that really meant that I had to look at everything, going into every detail, and being amazed by everything. So, naturally, I felt free to draw and develop this interest. At school, my teachers sometimes kept my papers, they said that I had a dancing, very drawn and artistic handwriting. But it was really with the support of my parents that I applied at an art school after high school.
How did you start to study art?
I studied graphic design in an art school in Saint-Luc, Belgium, and then, for a brief period, advertising. The desire to always have in hand my paper and a pencil did not leave me. Drawing has always been a passion for me since my childhood. However, I was also attracted by the world of theater. I particularly liked the energy, the atmosphere, the richness of the sets and the whole universe that it opened. For 15 years, I worked for theater companies, but also for the Opera of Toulouse, the Capitole. I oversaw theater posters design, illustrations, storyboards but also worked on the sets. During this period, although extremely enriching, I always felt the need to do something else, to paint, and still felt my strong desire to draw. It wasn't easy to take the plunge and devote myself entirely to painting, to claim to be a full-fledged painter.
What attracted you to the theater?
What I liked most, above all, was to highlight the actors, thanks to the sets or the play of light. The photo part was also important, because it allowed me to freeze for a moment all the work done to render the beauty of a scene or a set. Finally, I think there really is an echo between theater and painting, since there is this same search for balance in terms of colors, light and the setting of proportions on a given space, whether it is on a stage or on the canvas. Anyway, theater always helped me a lot in my painting. Thanks to it, I really learned to understand how a space was organized.
What fascinated me in the theater was to be able to represent situations and to play with a given space. In my paintings, in a way, I try to do the same. I like to push the eye of the spectator to scrutinize the details, to discover a story within the story. While painting, I tell myself little playlets, and I try to think of the ridiculousness that can accompany them. In spite of myself, I come to criticize a little bit all the small incoherences of the modern world, while trying to insufflate poetry into it and remaining always benevolent. My view of the world, I express it by painting.
Can you tell us more about this moment when you decided to become a painter?
My beginnings in painting were really marked by a choice to put the theater aside, not to get rid of it completely, but to clarify my desires. I wanted to give myself some time, I had this energy in me that animated me, and I was intimately convinced that I could do something with it. I wanted to see what could come out of me after all this time of gravitating. And then I went for it. At the beginning, it is all about research, you start from existing works, you look for what could really correspond to you. And even if I didn't really have a well-defined style, I tried to express what I had inside me, and to accept this universe that I was building, with these characters and these places that populated them. And then, after a while, I realized that it was possible, that I was having fun with these characters. In fact, I think they have always been present, even in my oldest drawings.
What inspires you?
It is a bit of everything that happens in life. For example, the theme of cooking that I like to work on, comes from the fact that I discovered this universe through a friend who is a chef. Seeing him work in the kitchen and listening to him talk about this world, made me love this energy. In fact, gastronomy is also an art. Therefore, there was a kind of logic in representing restaurant scenes for me. It amused me to imagine people gathered around a plate looking carefully at what was on it. So, the subjects I paint are related to my history: places I go to, scenes I have lived, imagined, or heard about. Everyday life objects touch me as much as they amuse me.
As we can see in this exhibition, the importance of drawing is fundamental in your process, but what does it really say about your work?
I once thought that, with my style, I could allow myself to tell things in my own way, a bit like in a comic book. The content is linked to the form. I have always had a notebook in my hand since I was very young. In my studio, it is the same thing. I sketch quick scenes, and these drawings become paintings or sometimes charcoals, in larger format. This is notably the case for this exhibition.
There is something very spontaneous in the drawing, mistakes are obvious, and then appears what works and what cannot remain. In other words, my notebook is like the bible of my paintings. It is something I will never stop doing.
Interview by Alice Delacroix