FRANCOIS FIEDLER
FOUNDATION
Daniel Dobbels*: The Esoteric, 1990
“The painting of Fiedler follows a line of vision that the matter (depth and surface) surrounds and reveals as if deranged,
breathless, at the highest point of its respiration. At this point they meet. And they separate one from the other in order to open
another passage: the long maturity at the end of which it is possible to see – movement that conjugates evasion and inertia,
the alveoli and the vibrating flight.”
“Material and line of vision are not lost from sight … the grain of the rugose is transformed into smoothness, he tires of grey
and it acquires the color of honey or of a strong gold. In the incalculable instant in which they are lost from sight, they are
submitted to the authority of a general light and the pact is signed: the matter appears like a conscience of matter, a transitive
power that conquers the abandonment. Here and now, each Fiedler painting is a testimony of a union that is sealed
somewhere else.”
breathless, at the highest point of its respiration. At this point they meet. And they separate one from the other in order to open
another passage: the long maturity at the end of which it is possible to see – movement that conjugates evasion and inertia,
the alveoli and the vibrating flight.”
“Material and line of vision are not lost from sight … the grain of the rugose is transformed into smoothness, he tires of grey
and it acquires the color of honey or of a strong gold. In the incalculable instant in which they are lost from sight, they are
submitted to the authority of a general light and the pact is signed: the matter appears like a conscience of matter, a transitive
power that conquers the abandonment. Here and now, each Fiedler painting is a testimony of a union that is sealed
somewhere else.”
“If painting has to have a meaning, it could be said to be religious, but likewise aphonic, it would be maintained it this power of
gathering a vision which find itself too disperse and mortified. To paint – is that which is always suggested in the collective
works of Fiedler, without any token of emphasis –would be to maintain alive something that was already dying: a link, a bond,
a fine border that aligns the body and the world, opaque upon a same strip of time, transparent and precisely legible. As
separated from everything, and as mixed with the most abject births, with the driest of disappearances.” -
gathering a vision which find itself too disperse and mortified. To paint – is that which is always suggested in the collective
works of Fiedler, without any token of emphasis –would be to maintain alive something that was already dying: a link, a bond,
a fine border that aligns the body and the world, opaque upon a same strip of time, transparent and precisely legible. As
separated from everything, and as mixed with the most abject births, with the driest of disappearances.” -
* Daniel Dobbels (1947-) is a French art criticist, he wrote artbooks about Bazaine, Dali, Picasso.
“Aquatic and inflated, solid yet alveolated, always fissured, although of high lineage. Sensitive to the imminence. Death when
it is necessary; alive when the danger demands it. Matter that subtends the word, flees from its proximity or contact, appears
to touch bottom so that its grey tones or its agitation surface. Matter of silence, where the color is a contained pain allowing
the emanation of a body of words to filtrate. More reverberant than ever, as soon as it arrives like the dying of all light: “And
when the even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea. And entered into a ship and went over the sea toward
Caphernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto
the ship: and they were afraid. But he said unto them, It is I; be not afraid. Then they willingly received him into the ship: and
immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” (Saint John, 6)
The opaque body and world in this night, in the middle of the sea combine and from fright is born the immediate boarding of
the ship. Aboard which painting is his eternal proof, constantly threatened, destructible, that does not seek to manifest itself.
The miracle is less the walking on the waters than the words that appease and calm the fright and give to the coming, right in
the middle of the waters and the wind, its strength of union, its mute exhilaration.”
“There can be divined one of the threshold that Fiedler seems to have defined without constraint: that same one in which the
“bond” of the painting conjugates the most excessive of pluralities and the loosest of knots. Origin of all, the bow-knots, virtual
focus of each surface, offers to the infinite its natural limit … Beyond the metaphysical, what is enmeshed in the invisible must
be understood, those loose knots of love which we know draw decorative ties in the form of an inverted 8. Irreducible
dimension but present in the smallest of gestures, in the shortest of waits or wait of Fiedler: in him, the infinite is a sign that
passes and floats in the centre of a great zone of peace where the earth no longer grows old. On touching the infinite, on
giving it this “emotional” character that the memory and knowledge scorn, Fiedler reconciles himself with the excessive calm
of infancy. Small eyes, open hand, time free for all of tomorrow. The original medium that is his own is not the sea nor the land
but its common lucidity, a lake, an area of gravitation which the hand-gaze deposits on all the heights, in the depths, at the
dawn of the peaks. There, where the word is riparian, silently rival. And as if despoiled of itself, when drawing the elemental
space of the parable.
For Fiedler, the infinite spins on its axis, it signs itself, it bores and penetrates, without fracturing into other matter that is not
time, which he encloses in an indefinite drifting.”
“Aquatic and inflated, solid yet alveolated, always fissured, although of high lineage. Sensitive to the imminence. Death when
it is necessary; alive when the danger demands it. Matter that subtends the word, flees from its proximity or contact, appears
to touch bottom so that its grey tones or its agitation surface. Matter of silence, where the color is a contained pain allowing
the emanation of a body of words to filtrate. More reverberant than ever, as soon as it arrives like the dying of all light: “And
when the even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea. And entered into a ship and went over the sea toward
Caphernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto
the ship: and they were afraid. But he said unto them, It is I; be not afraid. Then they willingly received him into the ship: and
immediately the ship was at the land whither they went.” (Saint John, 6)
The opaque body and world in this night, in the middle of the sea combine and from fright is born the immediate boarding of
the ship. Aboard which painting is his eternal proof, constantly threatened, destructible, that does not seek to manifest itself.
The miracle is less the walking on the waters than the words that appease and calm the fright and give to the coming, right in
the middle of the waters and the wind, its strength of union, its mute exhilaration.”
“There can be divined one of the threshold that Fiedler seems to have defined without constraint: that same one in which the
“bond” of the painting conjugates the most excessive of pluralities and the loosest of knots. Origin of all, the bow-knots, virtual
focus of each surface, offers to the infinite its natural limit … Beyond the metaphysical, what is enmeshed in the invisible must
be understood, those loose knots of love which we know draw decorative ties in the form of an inverted 8. Irreducible
dimension but present in the smallest of gestures, in the shortest of waits or wait of Fiedler: in him, the infinite is a sign that
passes and floats in the centre of a great zone of peace where the earth no longer grows old. On touching the infinite, on
giving it this “emotional” character that the memory and knowledge scorn, Fiedler reconciles himself with the excessive calm
of infancy. Small eyes, open hand, time free for all of tomorrow. The original medium that is his own is not the sea nor the land
but its common lucidity, a lake, an area of gravitation which the hand-gaze deposits on all the heights, in the depths, at the
dawn of the peaks. There, where the word is riparian, silently rival. And as if despoiled of itself, when drawing the elemental
space of the parable.
For Fiedler, the infinite spins on its axis, it signs itself, it bores and penetrates, without fracturing into other matter that is not
time, which he encloses in an indefinite drifting.”
“Fiedler does not prescribe any path to the light; and this could
come from a setting of the sun or from the dawn when this is
betrothed with the goblet of the night. At the alveolation of the
matter, Fiedler responds, in a complementary manner, with a
beating of space. And he retains the vibrating silence of it. The
paintings of Fiedler are neither stellar nor cosmic, they do not
place nor impose anything. They proclaim. In Fiedler, it is the
result of the power that the paintings acquire on drying before
our eyes so that other fertilities, other rains, other showers
shine – not painted but promised.”
come from a setting of the sun or from the dawn when this is
betrothed with the goblet of the night. At the alveolation of the
matter, Fiedler responds, in a complementary manner, with a
beating of space. And he retains the vibrating silence of it. The
paintings of Fiedler are neither stellar nor cosmic, they do not
place nor impose anything. They proclaim. In Fiedler, it is the
result of the power that the paintings acquire on drying before
our eyes so that other fertilities, other rains, other showers
shine – not painted but promised.”
Untitled, 1985, 36 x 25.2 in
“Each Fiedler painting is a depth of surface, a respiration emitted from a desire of the matter. What comes justifies itself, falls,
at last, to the edge … To the edge of a closed time, but at a distance also from the limitless.”
at last, to the edge … To the edge of a closed time, but at a distance also from the limitless.”
“Fiedler paints there where the things begin to scar: in the
untimeliness of the wound, of the pain and of the suffering of which
Nietzsche affirmed that it was always an “interpretation”. Fiedler has
interpreted it all and conserves from it the inexplicable moment; the
accident that gives meaning. He captures the event, convalescent …
While he graduates the measures of the cure. In this is infinite
consideration, prevision and prevention, where respect of that which is
unsightly, unspeakable, unfortunate.
untimeliness of the wound, of the pain and of the suffering of which
Nietzsche affirmed that it was always an “interpretation”. Fiedler has
interpreted it all and conserves from it the inexplicable moment; the
accident that gives meaning. He captures the event, convalescent …
While he graduates the measures of the cure. In this is infinite
consideration, prevision and prevention, where respect of that which is
unsightly, unspeakable, unfortunate.
Untitled, 1997, 39.4 x 29.5 in
Prohibition of the future. In this he maintains an esoteric possibility in a world that would like any form to be esoteric, that is,
mortal once and for all time. If a painting of Fiedler allows a part of itself to die, it is knowing, that it gives way to an immortal
part, as fine as a hair or a leash. Then he lets loose his “interior horizon”, “that mist full of visibility whose surface is but the
limit”. (Mereau-Ponty: The visible and Invisible, 1964)”.
mortal once and for all time. If a painting of Fiedler allows a part of itself to die, it is knowing, that it gives way to an immortal
part, as fine as a hair or a leash. Then he lets loose his “interior horizon”, “that mist full of visibility whose surface is but the
limit”. (Mereau-Ponty: The visible and Invisible, 1964)”.
