The Spirit of the Orient: Nine Minutes with Fabienne Verdier.

Fabienne Verdier’s first solo exhibition in London Rhythms and Reflections will be at Waddington Custot, Mayfair until 4 February 2017. Here she discusses her experiences with After Nyne’s Editor, Claire Meadows

Fabienne, take us back to the beginning. Where did your love of art start?

When I was very young my parents divorced and my father lived on a Seine barge just next to the Palais de Chaillot. The Modern Art Museum of the City of Paris is located in the Palais de Tokyo next door, and we would go to see all the shows. I remember experiencing my first emotional shock there around the age of 8, before works by Barnett Newman, Yves Klein, and especially Jean Tinguely - I remember the joy I felt in seeing his bicycle sculpture that could turn the pages of a book! That was where I discovered the liberty and poetry of art, perhaps it was kind of a consolation after the divorce.

Leaving France to go and study in China was a big step. Why did you choose the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute?

Back at that time, most of China had been absolutely closed to foreigners since the Cultural Revolution, including Sichuan Province. There were just a few exceptions – art schools in Beijing and Hangzhou had small foreigner programs. My aunt was an ethnologist and encouraged me to approach the experience as an artist-ethnographer. She felt that being the first foreigner in years in the largest city in China at that time would be a fascinating experience – and she was right! I was warned it would be very hard, but I also told myself if I couldn’t manage, I would transfer to one of the other programs.

What lessons did you take aware from this experience?

In terms of my art I learned most everything! But I believe the primary lessons that continue to drive and shape my work as an abstract painter today are: to paint with my inner vision, eyes closed, from deep inside the cavities of my mind; and to abandon my easel in favour of painting vertically, using the force of gravity, resulting in forms that are naturally more in harmony with those of the world.

You're involved with the Women for Women International charity; tell us about the aims of this charity and why you chose to be involved with them.

Today’s world is getting smaller and smaller, and as a result of our increasingly connected lifestyle we cannot simply ignore human suffering but should offer our compassion. Women for Women offers assistance and hope to women in countries that are torn apart by war and conflict, and I especially appreciate their emphasis on teaching knowledge and skills so that women can support themselves and their families.

Our last issue was the Innovation issue, and this issue is the Women in Art issue - you combine the two in your work. How did you decide to improvise your own tools in the creation of your work?

We are in a near constant state of transformation and experimentation with tools and materials in my studio. Very often, the experimentation is prompted by the direction of my research, for example when I was preparing for the homage to the Flemish Primitives in Bruges in 2014, I became very interested in working with the labyrinths in the headdress of Van Eyck’s wife Margareta (Portrait of Margareta Van Eyck, 1439), but found I could not do so with the handle of my giant brush. That’s when the idea came to me to cut the handle off and replace it with bicycle handlebars, making it possible to add a third dimension to the brushstroke. My years of experience have taught me to not be afraid of improvising my tools, because the fundamentals of painting involve the laws of physics, of cause and effect. The slightest change to tools or materials usually has a much more profound effect on the process than one would think. New tools in fact yield new forms.

What has been your favourite project to date?

My “favourite project” is the one I am currently immersed in! And that is always the case, so it depends when you ask me...

For any women starting out in the art world, what would be your advice?

My advice to any artist, man or woman, is to stay focused, maintain your integrity and inner life and follow your intuition. I also believe that an artist needs to set high standards and keep to them.

Finally, what's next after your show at Waddington Custot?

Quite simply, a new challenge! These past few years have gradually taken me beyond my individual experience as a painter and into more collaborative situations — for example experimenting in painting and music with faculty and students at the Juilliard School, or my next project which involves lexicography and abstract painting for a special anniversary edition of the classic Le Robert dictionary of French language. After 30 years of refusing to make use of words, seeking instead an abstract language, the challenge I’m now facing is how to remain abstract even in a context of reasoned thought.

FACTS ABOUT FABIENNE VERDIER

Fabienne studied at the École des Beaux-Arts of Toulouse before travelling to China, in 1983, to study the art at the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing.

She was taught by significant Chinese painters who survived the Cultural Revolution and her work combines an Eastern artistic education with the tradition of Western art

She is a supporter of Women for Women International, a charity which supports women survivors of war rebuild their lives in countries affected by conflict. She generously donated a work titled Blue Land (2015) to raise money for Women for Women International at the ‘She Inspires Art Live Auction’ in 2015.

Rhythms and Reflections series made following Verdier's intense experimentation spent as the first visual artist-in-residence at The Juilliard School in New York in 2014.