Archives : Avril

François Avril draws in a style that many have come to call “ligne frêle” or “delicate line” style. A regular visitor to Drouot’s auction rooms, he was particularly impressed by the lithographs of Bram Van Velde, an artist who worked within the European tradition of lyrical expressionism. That style’s influence can be seen in Avril’s work. His line conveys movement and ghostly presences, and the images that result vibrate with possibility, encouraging the enlightened observer to read between the lines and reach his own understanding of the scene. Avril’s seductive line is enhanced by his knowing use of colour, and his renderings of Parisian scenes are a glimpse of his intimate and personal vision of the city of light. He takes the pulse of the city in the areas that retain their “village” identity. Rather than spend his time replicating the august monuments of the city, he chooses instead to convey the street-level viewpoint of the habitual wanderer. In this aspect he echoes some of the renowned surrealists, such as Breton and Aragon, who in their own time elevated the act of aimless wandering to the level of art. In this print, which features a well-known stretch of the Boulevard Saint Germain, the delicate silhouette of the ladies who pass by and the particular hue of the sky are of equal importance to the composition as the name of the famous café in the foreground. For François Avril, discretion lies at the core of his art. Here, all ostentation and superficiality (no strangers to much of the art popularly associated with Paris) is rigorously discarded by Avril; it is condemned, like flotsam and jetsam, to the caprices of the Seine.