Bernard Piffaretti: No Chronology

Since the 1980’s Bernard Piffaretti is conceiving a new type of image referring to the idea of restart and recollection that is inherent in his self-referential approach. As Piffarettis’ images are neither windows to the world nor depicted notions, each of his works presents itself as a holistic reflection of painting per se.

The painter creates the therefore necessary anti-authoritarian aspect by use of a vertical line placed in the central axis of the canvas. In separating the screen into two halves he creates the vantage point of his procedure: duplication as method. After finishing the first half he continues with its reiteration on the other side of the dividing line. What appears plain and

simple upon first sight is however deeply essential, for although Piffaretti does not do anything else than to paint the painting process it is once again – and here in its most complex manner – the path is the destination. Whereas a copy would be condemned to failure, Piffaretti´s work is concerned with the transitory momentum that comes into effect through the presence of that separating line. It not only enables an awareness of the painting process but also creates distance to the seemingly expressive style. When faced with duplication, different kinds of questions can be raised – which would seem otherwise, in the
context of a onefold tableau, misplaced.

The systematical suspension of every term – format, motif, color and many more – can be read as revindication of the very same. In the absence of any artistic ideology or subjectivity Piffaretti creates the aura of his paintings by means of his method and in doing so, also the largest possible freedom. „The tableau has to contain everything“, says the painter, and indeed it is up to the spectators to highlight emotional or intellectual aspects of Bernard Piffaretti´s formal language.