Artist : Alain Michel BOUCHER (1944-2020)

Title : The factories

Technical and support: Gouache and spray paint on glossy paper

Features of the work: Not signed

Dimensions: 46x58cm

State : Good, creases on the lower left corner

Origin : Artist's studio Alain-Michel BOUCHER, the invoice engages the responsibility of the gallery as to the authenticity of the work.

Reference : "Praise of color, awareness of the world", Alain VIRCONDELET, Editions Mediane (See photo)

Expert's comment: Alain Michel BOUCHER is an offbeat artist, dreamer and poet who gives us to see the real world that surrounds him but also his inner world fed by a flamboyant and colorful imagination. His works are daring, powerful and rich and he emanates from them a real and bewitching perfume of life that only a talented being in tune with his environment can share with us. It is the moment and the inspiration that guide the choice of subjects, formats and technique. This approach leads the artist to produce series full of tenderness, humanity and hope despite the difficulties of the contemporary world. Alain Michel BOUCHER's painting from 1967 to 1987 (his Norman period) is first abstract then becomes semi-figurative. His rather dark color palette gives us a glimpse of the menacing universe of cities and factories, but his painting is never sad. Indeed, in the series of "planets" the joyful rhythm even in the absence of color makes it possible to soften the fury of the machines and the loneliness of the men. In the series of "factories" it is the color that softens the hard life of these workers who nevertheless manage to be happy. From 1975, he painted the series "imaginary characters" whose symbolic presence designates the human species. The artist paints crowds, groups of uprooted men and women as if planted there waiting for something, in a derisory destiny. But the absence of apparent features of the characters and the audacity of the colors show the need to live together in joy. From 1987, the artist lives in the Gers and his colors feed on multiple sensations, new feelings of exquisite tenderness, sunshine, joys and infinities. But they have also matured from the sorrows, the violence of the world and from a particular indifference specific to the artist. Throughout his career, Alain Michel BOUCHER will be influenced by the artists of the COBRA movement: CORNEILLE, Pierre ALECHENSKY, Jean Michel ATLAN, Asger JORN and Karel APPEL. Like them, his drawing is expressive, simplistic and spontaneous. As for the color, it sometimes intertwines at the limit of the identifiable. His art, based on truth and optimism, advocates a return to natural and instinctive values. The subjects treated in an abstract or semi-figurative way by the artist are centered on man and his emotions. This man is a being inseparable from his environment in the broad sense and therefore humanity, women, love, the city, factories, nature, birds... are undoubtedly the favorite subjects of the artist.

Biography of the artist: Alain Michel BOUCHER was born in 1944 in Normandy to peasant parents. From the age of 3 he decides that he will paint but he is diverted from his vocation by the family environment. He left college to work as a cabinetmaker in an antique furniture restoration workshop and in 1967 he began to draw alone. His military service in black Africa made him discover a world of unknown colors that he would later integrate into his palette. He then settled in Rouen and attended evening classes at the School of Fine Arts with as teachers: robert savary and Leon Toublanc. He exercises various jobs at night (Night watchman in a factory, truck washer, stretcher-bearer in the hospital…) and draws during the day. Toublanc immediately believed in the talent of the young artist and convinced him to present two paintings at the 1970 Salon d'Automne at the Grand Palais where he won the Othon Friesz prize. In 1987, Alain Michel Boucher moved to the Gers in Lectoure where his painting became colorful and luminous. There followed numerous salons and personal and collective exhibitions in France and in Le Monde. His works are present in many museums in France and abroad.

This commentary as well as the biography below were compiled by our experts using various reference works on the artist in our possession, any copy is therefore prohibited.