Bold Beauty
“Black and white is purity, the
essence of the idea, the letter,
the shadow, the calligrapher’s
mark, the yin and yang of
Oriental philosophy,” explains
L’Atlas. “There was all that wild
style from graffiti full of colour,
but I hated it – it was like a
cartoon in the street. I was
doing black and white because
nobody was doing it. It was so
simple to use just a few low-
tech things: one roll of tape,
one spray and one canvas. The
point was to be minimalist but
to make the biggest works with
practically nothing, and also
because I was poor.”
That simplicity is still
evident in his practice today
as he works with paper or
rice-starch tape, large wooden
stamps, cutters, rollers,
lacquer, ink, acrylic and spray
paint. He paints over canvases
composed from strips of tape
which, when removed, reveal
his stylised signature of vertical
and horizontal lines. Resistant,
highly adhesive and easy to
cut, gaffer tape is his preferred
material for floors and walls, as
it is used on movie sets and is
an accessory he grew up with.
As editors, his parents taped
frames together to edit films
for the likes of French directors
Francois Truffaut, Philippe
Garrel and Maurice Pialat. And
his uncle and aunt were head
cameramen who taught him
how to make pictures only in
black and white. Thereafter, as
a teenager, he photographed
the works of his graffiti artist
friends in black and white like
an archivist, an enthusiast
of older black-and-white
photographers such as Brassai.
“In photography, everything
happens on the same plane:
the architecture in my black-
and-white photos came to play
with my letters,” says L’Atlas.
“Paris was ugly at this time,
painted all in green by the
city hall – it was depressing.
But when depicted in black
and white, green appeared
light grey instead. I was also
fanatical about optical art and
Vasarely, and at the beginning
of advertising in the street,
there were rules to follow: We
didn’t have the right to use
black and white because it
was too optical and caused car
accidents. When I read that, I
knew that black and white had
a superpower, and by using it, I
could be recognised instantly.
With just two colours and one
shape of letters, I had my own
style. Afterwards, I needed
to use colour to accentuate
the effect of retinal vibration.
When you look at a fluorescent
square, your eye can’t stay still.
I was interested in the fact that
you can’t focus on a colour – it
would be constantly moving.
That’s how I left black and white
and went towards optical art,
but kept my love of the letter.”
The Modern Classical
His recent show, Steps, at
Galerie Geraldine Zberro in
Paris, aimed to eliminate the
frontiers between painting,
neon and sculpture, using
the same size, logo and
geometric structure of letters
in repetition while changing
the colours with optical art.
Thus, when visitors passed
through rooms looking at
a painting, followed by the
neon work and sculpture,
they got confused. His work
played on retinal persistence,
duplicating the structures so
the eye no longer recognised
what it was looking at.
5
7
6
8
- The artist’s
name written
graffiti-style,
featured at
a Speerstra
Gallery
exhibition.
- One of
L’Atlas’ works,
which resembles
a traditional
Oriental name
seal.
- The artist
fuses symbols,
geometry and
words to create
his enigmatic
works.
- Another form
of the word
L’Atlas, this time
reimagined in a
font comprising
straight lines.
