Geneviève Seillé

Tattoed character Geneviève Seillé Contemporary art outsider art drawing colour

2018

Geneviève Seillé was born in France in 1951. From 1970 to 1977, she taught in primary and secondary schools in France and England. In 1981, she graduated in Fine Art (BA) at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. From 1979 to 1988, she worked on performances as Le Banquet & Le Jardinier du Ciel, Wolverhampton Polytechnic, Once Upon a Time, Processions, La Parade de la Veuve Eploré & Forsaken Memories, Arena Studio, Wolverhampto and Stories from the Land of Pythonie, Lichfield Festival. From 1981 to 1992, she became a freelance teacher. She was an artist in residence between 1990 and 1995 at Stoke-on-Trent Museum and Art Gallery. She created collages, drawings in which writing has a major role and paintings. She also taught in schools in Warwickshire, Nuneaton and various other schools in England and France. In 1992, three of her book works were acquired by The National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. From 1993 to 2000, she lived and worked in France and England. Since 2000, she lived in France. COLLECTIONS National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archives de la poésie concrète et visuelle, Floride. USA MacArthur Foundation, USA In the plastic work of Geneviève Seillé, the word, like a sign, reigns supreme. An object of fascination, only its visual appearance counts and becomes an aesthetic entity. This craze for the formal appeal of the word dates back to the artist's early childhood where she delighted in the sound of the pen dipped in the inkwell then its progress on the paper. Sensitivity awakened, copying lines, words, letters then gives him immense pleasure. It was in 1995 that Geneviève Seillé took a new step by designing her own words, her “dense signs” which she integrated into her work. Linearity and color mingle, giving his drawings a certain symmetry, a certain repetition. It leaves no room for emptiness. Everything is an excuse to fill in, to “scribble” as she likes to say, but a scribble that always harmonizes in the end. In this mysterious zone, full of somewhat chaotic improvisations, the mental fascinations and visual images of Geneviève Seillé come to life. Monstrous creatures, invented anatomy and always the word come together and offer a new way of seeing, dizzying and fascinating. “We will lead to a world where human bodies can become birds, or fish, or even monsters with improbable limbs.”