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Particularly fascinated by pop art and music Yann Couedor, visual artist based in Paris, represents in his works characters that have marked him. The portraits of celebrities and artists Yann mainly composes using collage technique. His initial idea being to stick authentic elements in relation with the character he chooses to paint (newspaper articles, posters, vinyl records cover, photos, CD etc).
The singular intensity of the features realised in highly vibrant colour palette has become a signature of this great music lover and collector.
Here is Yann Couedor exclusively for FXLB Mag.
Can you tell us how did you become a visual artist?
What does art represent to you?
This is what has filled my life since the beginning. What feeds me and makes me passionate. In practice it is an outlet.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Mainly in Hip Hop/Soul/RnB music. I came across a live VHS tape of the singer Bobby Brown when I was 12 or 13 years old, that was the trigger. It was the beginning of the 90’s. I then became a collector of vinyls and CDs and was on the lookout for all the releases of albums. And especially interested in the history around this musical culture. From that moment I started to draw and paint the artists I was listening to. This passion for this culture took all the place in my life. I decided to spend my time saying thank you to the artists who gave me so much by representing them with the most sincerity possible.
What do you think about the art digitalisation?
I am very distant with this. I don’t have a computer. My job is the material, the elements, the physical. I cut out original documents, movie posters, vinyls, CDs to realise my portraits. What drives me is to feel and touch the material. I have nothing against digital but it is not at all my approach and what I aspire to. The part that interests me in the digital is the supplement that the tool can bring, as the animation for example.
Collage is your “signature” technique of expression, why? what other visual art techniques do you use in your works?
I started by mixing painting and collage. I used original documents (concert poster, vinyl cover etc ) for the background of my canvases and I made the portrait of the artist over it with paint.
I then started to integrate collage in the portraits to arrive at the current series which is only done in collage.
I love the challenge of collage, I have to make a portrait with predefined documents (those of the artist represented). There is therefore a whole part that I do not control and which is built under my eyes.
In painting, I mix the colors until I get what I want. Whereas I can’t change the color of an album cover or of the documents I’m going to paste. Today, collage represents 85% of my work. I still do some paintings.
We are nowadays assisting the unprecedented rise of African art. To your opinion, is it a “trend” or rather a global social movement’s reflection that is here to stay?
It is obviously here to stay. It’s just that gallery owners have to give African artists the space they deserve to settle down. Now that they can compete with others, they are and will remain at the forefront among others.
What drives your creativity: is there any messages you are transferring through your portraits or is it pure art?
What I do remains above all Pop. Through my portraits I sometimes use lyrics, pieces of interviews etc that I write in collage over the portrait to convey a message. (Nina Simone « All I Want Is Equality », Mike Tyson « We can Get anything we want ») .
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