Jean-Marc Bustamante: Paintings for Munich

About

As part of the Munich Gallery Weekend, Various Others and Open Art 2024, Walter Storms Galerie presents the French artist Jean-Marc Bustamante. He is known for his role as director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and his achievements as a professor at the Munich Art Academy (2010-2016).

Following his large groups of photographic works and acrylic glass paintings, his new artistic research is dedicated to classical painting. On a background of gesso on aluminum, he creates linear, hatched marks in colored ink. The combination of ink on gesso lends the works a lively, almost organic quality. Bustamante's gradual application of the colors creates a transparent depth in which the elements overlap and blend together appearing almost weightless. The result is an exciting balance between abstraction and figuration that tells of nature and life.
 
Bustamante's works are like a volatile breeze that makes the invisible visible. In his works, time and space, colors and shapes merge into a gentle melody that echoes in the silence of contemplation. His pieces are reminiscent of wall paintings - as if a piece of the past or another space had been made tangible.
 
In his long artistic career, with documenta and Biennale participations, Bustamante has had more than 100 solo exhibitions worldwide. “Paintings for Munich” is a tribute to the city that Bustamante has shaped artistically over the years.