By Howie Green
French artist Phillip Bertho's artwork has a charming familiarity to it that draws us in and makes us want to take a closer look. Once we venture to take an up-close and personal look Bertho's images knock us off-guard with their wit, whimsy and improbable gravity.
Bertho's people reside in a candy wafer colored, hyper-realistic world of cascading walls, Op-Art patterns, rings, holes and floating bladders and go about their business seemingly unaware of their precarious surroundings. The inhabitants of this Hollywood Cosmic Never-Neverland are perched in a dazzling dream world that is part Disney, part Dali, part Norman Rockwell and totally Bertho. Combined together these different influences join forces in Bertho's work to which he adds his own unique sense of humor - always a welcomed element in the often all too-serious world of art. Bertho worked for years as a much sought after and highly skilled 'trompe l'oiel' artist and his superb skills as draftsman and painter add a fun 'fool your eye' quality to his artwork.
Bertho creates views into an alternate reality that sparkle with color, imagination and movement - rather like a dream we'd all like to inhabit. The people and characters in Bertho's world all look remarkably 'real' while at the same time surreal and completely improbable. Circles and rings double as windows and doors between layers of Bertho's stage show tableaus. Echoing the ice cream color palette of MGM musical movies from the 1940s the paintings look like single frames from a movie production number by Busby Berkley. One wouldn't be at all surprised if Gene Kelly or Donald O'Conner suddenly tumbled through an opening and danced, slid or hopped their way across the frame.
Bertho's images are so infused with movement that even after seeing them in a gallery you will remember them in motion. This illusion is further highlighted by Bertho's flawless photo-realistic painting technique that compels us to look closer. But don't look too close for upon close inspection nothing is revealed. There are no brush strokes or physical signs of his painting technique. Bertho's years doing 'trompe l'oiel' have given him the ability to create a visual world that defies it's creator. Viewing Bertho's work from 10 inches or 10 feet is the same wondrous experience. The energy and vitality that come bouncing off the canvas come from the image and not from the execution. Of course the fun of seeing his originals in a gallery is the fun of seeing these fantasy images at large scale. Most of Bertho's work is large in scale, which adds considerably to their ability to tantalize and seduce.
What exactly is going on in Bertho's world? Figuring that out is half the fun of seeing his images in person. The pretty colors and familiar shapes make us comfortable while the uncertain nature of the lives depicted in this work raises questions that go beneath the flawless candy-colored surface of Bertho's images.
In this post 9/11 era of global uncertainty are we, like the people in Bertho's work, living on the edges and pretending everything is OK, when we know that something is amiss? If the walls raise or fall will they be free-floating in air or is this Bertho universe a safe harbor for those willing and able to accept his eye-popping geometric backdrops as just another ever changing factor in an every changing world?
Bertho tends to dwell on matters of human existence and for him art eloquently captures the answers to existential questions in a poetic manner. Since answers to such questions as who we are and why we are, are almost incomprehensible and the answers unknown, Bertho feels that his art holds a key - not in giving us specifics, but in giving us a sort of visual clue to the answers.
In a recent conversation I had with Bertho he revealed to me that he believes he breathes new life into the question of the viability of art. Bertho feels that while art critics cry that art is dead, for him, it is not. He believes that there is a crisis in contemporary art, a lack of vision by contemporary artists that has created a void that needs to be filled. Filling that void for Bertho starts by re-examining traditional styles like Pop, Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism, each of which he believes has yet to be fully developed.
Phillipe Bertho and Howie Green chat at a recent Martin Lawrence Gallery opening
In his artwork, you see great precision and exactitude, which is difficult to achieve and he works hard at it. There is an almost engineered quality to certain aspects of his paintings, but against the perfectly crafted detail, the artist creates splashes, blobs and other irregular, organic-looking objects and elements as an effort at a sort of spontaneity that he believes is necessary in life and art. The flowers, dots, bubbles and patterns in his artwork are all aspects of Pop Art. These are repetitive, commercial, non-spiritual aspects contained within his artwork to reflect popular culture. They are iconic images and patterns that come straight from our culture and times. The patterns that he uses serve as backdrops for a narrative set of foreground images. All of his work appears to be spontaneous, meant to impart a view of a specific event, instance or emotion that strikes him.
Originality to Bertho is about a continuum of art history that is examining and extending existing art styles so as to create entirely new styles, rather than simply rebelling against all style and working hard to shock the public. He thinks some contemporary artists are out simply to shock and disgust as a means of convincing people that they are creating new art styles and wish to be taken seriously. Bertho finds these artists and their work excessive and frankly, unoriginal. In his words, true originality does not lie in saying something that has never before been said, but in saying the same thing differently and therefore, furthering the thread or thought that was first generated by artists of the past.
Bertho himself claims his art has no specific meaning and he has no desire to tell any specific story through his artwork. He, like his artwork, is also very silly, fun, vulnerable, honest and very true to himself. He says his art is a very real extension of himself, which is what lends his images their credibility. Bertho is creating something new by honoring something that existed before, and as such, while being an excellent draftsman and a highly skilled artist in his own right, is creating an art style that seems to be refreshingly unique.
Bertho's work is on display at the Martin Lawrence Gallery nationwide and in Boston on Newbury Street in the Back Bay. A recent opening night event brought Bertho's work off the walls into the gallery. Event producer Martling & Company (Brookline, MA) creators of national executive events brought in Tiger Lily Caterers to joined forces with the gallery staff to create a memorable evening that used the movement, colors and geometry of Bertho's work to create an experience that those in attendance will not soon forget.
Opening event produced by Martling & Co. with Tiger Lily Catering
The opening event featured mimes and costumed models that mirrored the characters in Bertho's images and looked as if they had just stepped out a painting for a quick drink and a few hors d'oeuvres. The hors d'oeuvres and desserts looked like pieces of art and were hand-served by a costumed waitstaff that also reflected Bertho's iconography with stripes, dots, patterns, circles and other iconic items including, props, wire sculpture dolls and private label wine and champagne bottles. In a crowded gallery of people the overall effect of the event was as if Bertho's world had suddenly come to life.
Like the characters in Bertho's work those in attendance seemed to be enjoying their colorful surroundings without any anxiety or worry. All in all it's not a bad way to live and the view is exquisite!
Howie Green is an award-winning artist whose artwork has appeared in over 20 group and solo shows. His book "Jazz Fish Zen" was published by Charles Tuttle Publishers and he recently won an Absolut Vodka 25th Anniversary art competition in Boston, MA. Howie is a regular contributor to www.edgeboston.com and his work can be seen online at www.hgd.com
Text © copyright 2006 Howie Green
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