Pascal Vinardel

The Salt Flats

2021-2022

Pascal Vinardel was born on April 29, 1951 in Casablanca, Morocco, to brillant cultured parents, his father a lawyer and magistrate and his mother a school teacher. Both parents influenced their child at an early age. Pascal Vinardel was introduced to music by his maternal grandfather, Henri Morette, through playing the cello. Pablo Cazals, the Catalan cellist and Francis Poulenc the French composer were friends of the family, among other celebrated musicians of the time. Later, he found painting a source of meditation which quickly became an extraordinary way to capture the reality that surrounded him. Moving to France in 1965, he undertook literary studies at the prestigious lycée Janson de Sailly, then attended the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he gained his diploma in 1972. After winning all the best prizes that young painters could compete for and receiving recognition at public exhibitions from art dealers and collectors of the day, Pascal Vinardel achieved success in the Casa Velazquez competition, from which he received a grant to stay in Spain for two years. During his stay in Madrid, he developed his art in the company of the Prado masters and made several journeys through Spain studying history of Spanish art in various museums. It was during this time, around 1976, that he established a spacious 19th Century studio in the heart of Paris, where the future President of France, François Mitterrand later discovered his work. Mitterrand was not only a private collector during his presidency from 1980 to 1988 but also supportive of the young artist’s career by acquiring his works through the Palais de l’Elysée to present to foreign heads of state. His work was presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou at the « Ateliers contemporains » exhibition in 1977. He had a personal exhibition at the gallery Albert loeb in 1980. During the same year, his work was presented at the City Hall of Paris for « Figuration d’aujourd’hui ». In 1984 the gallery Albert Loeb organised a large exhibition of his paintings. As his work often took him abroad, he decided to part from his studio and keep only his home base in Paris to welcome his private collectors. The Swiss gallery François Ditesheim organised a large exhibition of Vinardel’s paintings in 1988 for the F.I.A.C at the Grand Palais in Paris, and a year later at his Swiss gallery in Neuchâtel. From 1994 to 2000 Vinardel taught art at l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. He had his first retrospective at the « Espace culturel des Dominicaines » in 2002, at Pont-L’Evêque, in Normandy. Vinardel was awarded the honourable distinction in 2013 of « Knight of Arts and Letters » (Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Ministry of Culture in Paris In the same year, his ink drawings were exhibited at the Musée Angladon in Avignon, during the event « A livre ouvert » in collaboration with the literary review « Conférence ».