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History
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Richard Bagnoud
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Richard Bagnoud (a native of Valais; born in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1954) is self-taught. After finishing his training as a gravure retoucher, he attended art schools only occasionally. As much as possible, he has developed his own style beyond influence and imitation.
Since 1982 he has worked exclusively as a painter. Earlier he had catched up on his high school education; lengthy stays abroad (e.g., in the Himalayas) provided an education and direction for him through a variety of worldviews. Eastern and—especially—Central European spiritual life became a fruitful and lasting source for his artistic soul. To date Bagnoud is absolutely convinced that it is possible for a person to paint only what he, himself, is. And thus from the beginning he has consistently pursued personal inner development and schooling.
He made his exhibition debut in 1990 as a solo traveling exhibit in the historical electoral castle in Eltville (Germany) where Gutenberg had printed his first works. The response to the exhibition and its success was reflected in the fact that a large part of visitors to the exhibitions returned several times (some almost daily) to experience the pictures. A few years earlier he had taken up stone-lithography which led to work with international publishing houses. During all these years he was active as an artist in over 20 domiciles, especially with private commissions.
His main goals: To create works of art that bring human beings back to themselves and thus to the spirit in us and above us. Re-ligare, joining or leading people back to the spirit that has been lost. Thus art is once again what it always was and will be again—re-ligious.
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Richard and Margret Bagnoud
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Thoughts on Art
The motto for each of my exhibitions has been: Art—a Way to the Spirit. As this title indicates, art should lead the human being to the spirit, make the human being sensitive to it. Works of art inspire the human being and thus they allow him to rise above himself. The meaning of the world dawns in the soul. Our senses show us sensory phenomenon, but they do not show us the harmonic laws things follow. These are hidden in the depths of the soul. The soul is not limited to the physical body—it is a part of the infinity. But the eternal must be discovered within the personality (physical body), advantageously through art. For the perishable element in the human being is meant to give birth to the eternal.
If art is to bear witness to the connection between the human being and supersensible worlds, I must—as an artist—make myself more and more into a capable instrument through how I lead my life, to serve such a lofty goal in reverence and gratitude.
My Conclusion
“Art is life
Life is light and color
And thus spirit.
There the human being must find the way back.”
On My Painting
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Richard Bagnoud at work
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I would like to have it understood as contemplative painting. My path is marked by a constant struggle for the middle between complete darkness and glaring light, between the lifeless and the exuberant. A life led consciously and in connection with nature is meant to produce this balance, this harmony between the polarities of false exuberance and the petrifaction found in rationality and technology. It goes without saying that contemplative painting requires a contemplative life.
But what is contemplative painting, and what does it strive for? Let me begin by saying what it is not, what it does not strive for, and what it cannot be—and then the answer may appear almost of itself.
It is neither mere subjective impression without a real object, nor is it the expressionistic “scream” as a passionate cry of despair about lost unity with God and nature. It is neither cubist, nor is it geometric abstraction with its need for that objectivity of constructing reason. Vice versa, its watchword cannot and will not be a subjectivity where irrationality, re-valuing, and non-sense are really sought. Neither physical nor soul naturalism are part of it. It certainly cannot be the surrealistic from which reason, beauty, ethics are basically excluded and the chaotic, the monstrous, is striven for, where the world of a purely animal nature, the world of the subhuman - i.e., the soul projection of instinct - is highly stylized. It explicitly cannot convey a Romantic flight from the world nor can it be mere esoteric dreams. Truth is also manifested in art through polarity; my painting bases its truth on the battle between light and darkness.
Let us not forget: Artists are themselves responsible only for very small part of the many terrible phenomena in our culture. The soil for the culture is prepared by society and its mentors.
As myth and the genius of language show us, beauty and truth have the same origin. What is beautiful is therefore also true and good! Spirit and sensory perception are balanced in beauty. Works of art presuppose that an experience is elevated above the merely personal into the realm of all humanity. Thus they are able to touch every human being and lift human beings above themselves. Every work of art is a sign, a hieroglyph, for human experience.
The Problem of Art is a Problem of Consciousness!
Finally: Contemplative painting seeks to reconcile earthly reality and spiritual truth. With qualities of inward composure and immersion to have a conscious experience of imagination through nature (contemplative view of nature) and also to have this experience through concentrated, visual thinking. On the one hand, nature, the theme, thus becomes a metaphor for a soul experience; on the other hand, this higher spiritual element is also directly at work here!
Earlier cultures experienced the reality of the spirit in imaginations, as a world of pictures. This mythological consciousness is still reflected in the Greek myths. These myths are not products of some fantasy but they show us the reality of spiritual archetypes.
The artist of the future will find a path back to this source, but now in freedom and self-consciousness. |
