By François Houtin
Located in Palm Springs, CA
This is a unique print from the second state, signed and titled in pencil. the final edition of 180 was completed for the Société des peintres-graveurs français. This is a great example of the texture and tone that can be achieved with drypoint.
In keeping with the best Italian traditions, Houtin's gardens are well furnished with fragmentary architecture conveying a mood of elegiac decay, while the vestiges of grand designs, manifest in a profusion of topiary-lined avenues, evoke French precedents. Elsewhere, temples and pavilions scattered over undulating slopes speak of an enthusiasm for English garden practice.
Bordering at times on the surreal, baroque in their richness and extravagance of conception, Houtin's gardens are hybrid creations in terms of both their botany and architecture, which wittily plunder a wide spectrum of conventions.
François Houtin was born in Craon en Mayenne, France in 1950. He has lived and worked in Paris since 1971. He was trained as a landscape architect, and worked on such prominent projects as the renovation of the Jardin des Tuilleries in 1991. It wasn't until 1973 that he learned printmaking from Jean Delpech, and by 1979 he had become a full-time artist known for his highly detailed prints...
Category
1980s Contemporary François Houtin Art