Gandhi
Dimensions: L 0.72 m x W 0.39 m x H 1.75 m
Technique : Bronze/ Bronze
Date: 2022
Private collection
By Philippe Tallis
Philippe Tallis
The March, Gandhi & Mira
Unlike my daily creations and compositions: suspended times, caught on the alive, ephemeral, Gandhi is the result of a long spiritual journey and beautiful encounters.
Three figures inspired my youth: Nijinsky, Beckett and Mahatma Gandhi. They share in my eyes an unconditional love of truth and the same courage in seeking it. This should be the mantra of any artist. When we are at our best, this is what we are looking for.
The genesis of this work and that of Mira, who accompanied him, began a meeting with Sir Richard Attenborough, then President of the Gandhi Foundation, at his home in Richmond. I introduce him to the Mahatma model figures I'm working on. He chooses one and it's this one I'm introducing you today.
The great, thin spectral figure that led the Salt March to the sea. "This is the essence of Bapu," said my host.
Philippe Tallis
Philippe Tallis
Philippe Tallis was born in 1960 in Lobatsi, Botswana, a French mother and an English father. He lived there until the age of seven, then spent two years in England before a definitive installation in France, punctuated by frequent stays in Outre-Manche.
At the age of 16, he attended as a free listener a course in painting technique in Fine Arts, then entered Penninghen, École Supérieure d'Art Graphique.
Painter and sculptor, he is always in search of movement. The living being simmers under his brush: the animal finds the African space as the dancer, actor or musician lives his show. Tallis painted Carolyn Carlson, Maurice Béjart, Sylvie Guillem during rehearsals and sometimes on stage.
The artist is also interested in the circus world, he loves the lively atmosphere of the shows and thus participates in "gestuelles" on stage and various cultural improvisation events in France, Belgium and Germany.
Apart from his work with artists, Philippe Tallis was conquered by animals. He keeps in him the memory of his childhood in Africa, his spaces, the red land of Botswana and his nature where immobilism is synonymous with danger.
His paintings capture the fulgurance of the moment and many of them include wildlife.
The Gandhi by Carolyn Carlson
I have known Philippe Tallis for over 30 years, he is a talented painter, sculptor and cartoonist who has captured on hundreds of fantastic paintings certain moments of my most striking pieces: Blue Lady, Dark, Steppe and Seen here at the Théâtre de la Ville. These are incredible interpretations of the prints left by my choreographies, which are only ephemeral in dance.
Philippe and I collaborated on many poetic events and improvisation performances at the Paris Workshop and the Centre Chorégraphique National de Roubaix. He became a master in the art of sketching spontaneous gestures of actions and fixed images. His visions are amazing because he dances with us on paper, it is the very essence of imagination, because it is his own perspective that is transcribed. His gift of "see in the instant" allows him to create works of art.
Instinct is a large part of Philippe Tallis's inherent talent, he knows when to give a brush stroke to organic curves, letting the forms speak in expressive visual silence. I thank Philippe, a unique artist at the service of dance art thanks to his images which are the skeletons of inner poems for posterity.
Recently I saw his Gandhi sculpture, it was as if he were alive, the form of a humble man with universal truths, a presence of peace, beauty and grace. His goat walking by his side, a poignant reminder of the sharing of our same primary sources of humility and love.
A masterpiece by a visionary poet.
With all due respect,
Carolyn Carlson
To go further
Sculptures
Philippe Tallis has no idea of art in general, or his own, than a craftsman's point of view. Only the right gesture counts: the result is only a side effect. Like all those who prefer to admire, he looks, he permeates, he inspires and seeks. It feels curious about everything, sensitive to each other, eager to grasp everything about the life around it. He puts on the bodies the softness of his blue eye. It seems to penetrate the universe to transcribe, but is forgotten to reveal its essence.
More than a painter of the movement, painter of the moving seems to be better suited. It is the naked emotion that he seeks, the sensitivity of the living, to freeze what touches him. This can be in the most delicate way possible, juxtaposing two unlikely stones that will make in the second a very credible "mouflon". Or on the other hand, in a very spectacular and provocative way, by pinning an ostrich steel that its wings in doors of fried cars and fluo colors attract towards the sky.
Born in the days of a bulimic consumer society, Philippe Tallis never stopped dreaming of the sobriety of a future where the words "destroy, waste, lose" would have disappeared from the vocabulary. Its peaceful countryside is suddenly stried with scrap metal and bastaings, corrugated with various corrosion sheets, congested with stones of a thousand colors. To this bric-à-brac of materials, to the disorder of a break, all futures are promised. Philippe Tallis will keep everything that follows: sketches, drawings, watercolours, canvases and stones in their different states. "The trash is a kingdom," he humbly risks. And suddenly, this inexhaustible wealth is not far from astonishing us.
What Philippe Tallis gives us to see always affects his purpose. In the foreground, the subject emerges sharp, sharp, sometimes virtuoso, accentuated by neutral funds, sometimes empty. Hence the impression of a focus that avoids the eyes being lost, which is also the principle of certain sculptures. Philippe Tallis seems to abandon the rest of the work with raw stone. So the main thing is said, the objective achieved.
Text by Pierre-Yves Boufard.
Painting and drawing
So the quest for movement is obsessed.
Don't look. For him, words come only after.
So what? Big sweeps, traces. It's time. What matters? Find the fulgurance of the moment: the vivacity in the continuous flow of the gesture. Man or animal. Seize the encounter with life. Look out of the painting speech. Sculpture. To listen to the sounds, colors and rhythm caused by the keys. Pick breaks, breaks, the continuous flow of a line. Forward by lightning stroke. Fuck it. With lightning, an image comes, its energy tears the canvas.
He laughs. Refuses to be trapped in words. The seriousness is elsewhere. In continuous effort, the search for movement. Each step is a loss of balance.
