The Apocalypse, 21st Century Edition
Based in the Sarthe region, artist Danielle Burgart has reinterpreted the Apocalypse of Angers in a series of paintings, which she will unveil from May 9th to 19th in Saint-Barthélémy-d'Anjou.
It is quite logically in Anjou that she is giving it the first look. She has been working on this entirely original project for over two years, inspired by the Apocalypse Tapestries housed at the Château d'Angers. From May 9th to 19th, Danielle Burgart will unveil the fruit of this pictorial adventure, which she had in no way premeditated, in Saint-Barthélémy-d'Anjou.
"It was like a chain reaction."
“When I discovered the Apocalypse, something happened,” admits this Strasbourg-based artist, who lived in Paris for thirty years before settling four years ago in the 1re ces rêves studio in Parcé-sur-Sarthe, near La Flèche. “The place, the grandeur of this work that blends humans and animals, its freedom of representation struck me. Back in my studio, I created a first canvas based on my feelings, then a second… It was like a chain reaction.”
“We find the same problems there,” she rightly observes. “Turbulent times, wars, epidemics, climate change… Everything is easily transposable to the current era, which resonates with the text of John, which evokes the old world having come to an end and the imminence of a new one in a radical new beginning.”
From this emerged seven large paintings, composed of human bodies in motion, haloed by the heads of birds and creatures of mythological inspiration, where humanity and animality form a unified whole. This is a signature style of the artist, who, based on the Book of Revelation, conceived 24 other paintings. These are inhabited by elderly men, expressive, with a sense of impending doom, each alluding to Saint John.
Her work, a blend of realism, surrealism, and fantastical bestiary, culminates in a triptych, "The River of Life," evocative of paradise, a symbol of nature and renewal. "The positive note of my series," explains the artist, who depicts "the time after. These cycles can have an end and give birth," she says.
"Places that have meaning"
Her work, which exists in the space between shadow and light, began on site. At the castle, in this subdued atmosphere facing the Apocalypse, Danielle Burgart carried out her initial reflections, jotted down notes, took photographs, and sketched a few images. The artist cherished these moments, "comfortably settled in the semi-darkness, letting herself be immersed."
This "Apocalypse" exhibition, the painter envisions, will be held in historical locations, such as abbeys, "places that have meaning," explains this new resident of the Sarthe region, who trained as an independent student at the Beaux-Arts and learned from her peers. Having exhibited for many years in France and abroad, she has always adhered to the sole guiding principle of "the one you choose yourself."
Mireille Puau - Le Courrier de l'Ouest - May 2024
The story of the Apocalypse resonates with our time.
In front of her studio, peacocks, all white, take flight and squawk, along with an equally pale cat. Danielle Burgart loves immaculate animals. She also loves to paint them: wolves, deer, kangaroos, monkeys, and lions. But the rest of her work is rather somber: the colors of earth, blood, and sky. From the animals, there remain the heads of birds, which she draws with pen and India ink. Heads placed atop human silhouettes. "The human body has always been my subject. Painting bird heads is a way of symbolizing our animal nature."
Danielle Burgart is from Alsace and lived for thirty years in the Paris region. Three and a half years ago, she settled in the countryside near Parcé-sur-Sarthe, in a place called La Saunerie, in a magnificent 16th-century estate comprising a manor house, a barn converted into a glass studio, and a stable that has become The Artistic Red Dot, a gallery and collectors' circle created by her partner, Eric Dos Santos. There, she will exhibit from April 20 to July 15, 2023, alongside other artists.
The story of the Apocalypse resonates with our time.
Danielle Burgart is looking for another venue to exhibit the work that has absorbed her for the past year and a half: canvases conceived in front of the Apocalypse Tapestry displayed at Angers Castle. She speaks of an aesthetic and emotional shock experienced upon seeing this 140-meter-long tapestry. Since then, she has selected certain scenes and translated them into her world of men with bird heads. "The story of the Apocalypse resonates within us," she writes, "in our era that consumes resources and subjugates life."
Always large formats
The painter regularly travels to Angers to draw her sketches. Then she paints on large canvases, choosing the least static scenes. In each painting, a trumpet announces a catastrophe. The second trumpet: a shipwreck. The fifth trumpet: locusts devouring everything. And then the seventh trumpet, finally announcing the world to come. The artist, who cites Bacon and the Expressionist movement as inspiration, dreams of a large, ancient stone building to house her imposing canvases. The Abbey of L'Étau, for example. Danielle Burgart has become a resident of the Sarthe region. Like other residents of Parcé, she is inspired by nature. She loves the tranquility of her property, painting while watching the trees and animals from her conservatory. "Vegetation will undoubtedly be increasingly present in my compositions," she says, and in her upcoming exhibitions. One is planned for autumn in Paris, at the 109 Biennale, an association of figurative painters and sculptors.
Sophie Foucher - La Maine Libre - April 2023
Near Angers, this artist draws inspiration from the Apocalypse Tapestry.
Danielle Burgart, a resident of the Sarthe region, drew inspiration from the tapestry in Angers (Maine-et-Loire) to create a series of paintings on the theme of the Apocalypse. Her creations will be exhibited for the first time in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, near Angers, from Friday, May 10 to Sunday, May 19, 2024.
Danielle Burgart is preparing to present the culmination of two years of work. From Friday, May 10th to Sunday, May 19th, the painter will exhibit all of her works dedicated to the theme of the Apocalypse at the art space in Pignerolle Park, in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, near Angers (Maine-et-Loire). “It's true that it's not a very cheerful theme, but the Apocalypse isn't the end of times, it's the beginning of a more peaceful one.”
A subject not entirely unfamiliar to the city of King René, home to the 14th-century Apocalypse Tapestry in Angers Castle. It was there that the idea first took root in the author's mind three years ago. “I was inspired by the sheer scale of this piece, the fantastic bestiary blending human and animal, and above all by the story.” The story depicts the struggle between Good and Evil in the last book of the Bible.
Wars, epidemics, climate change
During the Middle Ages, the tapestry commissioned by Louis I of Anjou also aimed to convey a political message during the Hundred Years' War. Far removed from medieval battles, Danielle Burgart also finds a connection to the world around us. “The tapestry deals with wars and epidemics, and it's quite obvious to draw parallels with current events.” The difficulties in accessing water at the time can now be seen from the perspective of climate change. In the series of paintings presented by the artist, one deals with the fall of Babylon and recounts the city's destruction.
Unlike medieval tapestries, which read like comic strips, Danielle Burgart's work is not arranged chronologically. “I start with the stories that interest me. There are certain parts whose dynamics intrigue me.” From this fascination with tapestry emerged her first two canvases, following her initial trip to the banks of the Maine River.
And that's how it all started. "Gradually, I became more and more interested in it. I hadn't intended to dedicate myself to it so much at first."
Humans with bird heads
A few trips back and forth between Sarthe and Maine-et-Loire later, the artist's studio was well-stocked. His complete works include a series of 24 canvases measuring 1.5m x 0.5m, seven large-format pieces measuring two meters x two meters, and a triptych, all born from sketches made in the darkened room reserved for tapestry making. "It's truly an interpretation nourished by tapestry."
Danielle Burgart notably retains her pictorial style in which the heads of the depicted figures are replaced by those of birds. “It's an opening towards the imagination, more mythological,” explains the author. “I'm interested in humanity in all its forms.”
In May, she will present her entire body of work for the first time, although it is not yet finished. An eighth large-format painting is currently in production.
Paul Edon - Ouest France - May 2024
The Birdmen of Danielle Burgart
In the series of birdmen, Danielle Burgart's "creature" is a hybrid character and the poetic evocation that the artist makes of it, between allegory and myth, becomes the object of the story.
Danielle Burgart's assured drawing establishes its hypnotic, disturbing and seductive presence, in a universe structured by a pictorial material whose colorful accents, sometimes violent, are always controlled to support the expression.
In the space of the work where tenderness and cruelty coexist, Danielle Burgart makes us follow, fascinated, the relationships that she herself maintains with this chimeric humanity, this proud force of life, this contemporary Horus called to another rebirth…
Piero Cavalleri - Gallery Owner
Animality in Burgart
Danielle Burgart relentlessly pursues the animalistic nature within each of us in compositions that offer multiple layers of interpretation. Life is a constant struggle and a perpetual quest in this demanding painting.
Ludovic Duhamel - Mirror of art
A Portrait in Mirror of Art
Who is your favorite contemporary artist?
Ousmane Sow
The last exhibition you visited?
Paula Régo's cruel tales at the Orangerie. A great lady of painting!
A work of art from the past?
The Isenheim Altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald. A powerful and emotional experience of painting in my youth. Even now, when I go to Colmar, I go into the Unterlinden Museum and sit in front of it. It helps me to reflect.
A work of art of the present?
William Kentridge 'More Sweetly Play The Dance'. Monumental video seen in autumn at the Cape Town Museum. Powerful and so beautiful that I watched it three times in a row.
Your favorite book?
Back when I was reading, I loved Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novels, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera. Now I can't even finish a 90-page novel!
A memorable film?
The Ones and the Others by Claude Lelouch
.
An actor?
Romain Duris
An actress?
Catherine Deneuve, for her entire career but especially for the quirky characters she plays in her latest films.
The song you hum in the shower?
I don't sing in the shower, or anywhere else, and that's a good thing... apparently I sing very badly.
The ideal country?
One where cruelty (towards all species) would not exist. It's very silly and it's called a utopia, I know…
The city where you would like to live
I'd like to be a nomad, doing several things at once.
Your latest outrage?
The "migration crisis", the drownings in the Mediterranean, the misery of these men and women who, despite their courage (because it takes courage to reach Europe), find themselves facing an increasingly widespread hateful rejection.
What was your latest source of enthusiasm?
The city of Petra in Jordan and the desert that surrounds it.
What would you take to a desert island?
I'm not going to a desert island.
Who is the most important person for you?
Simon Veil
Your favorite word?
Love
Mirror of Art
Humanity by Danielle Burgart
"The pictorial world that Danielle Burgart constructs around the body is nourished by both the
the softness of the shadows, the strength of the reliefs it brings, and the power of the
movements suggested by the composition. Neglecting faces, like gazes, this
It is these bodies, with their muscles, that Danielle Burgart makes speak. And what expression!
Danielle Burgart scrutinizes and discovers through the flesh, not what she wants to say,
But what the individual expresses, she discovers and presents to us; she studies it.
Body language is analyzed, broken down, and its meaning extracted. To better express one's subject,
Danielle Burgart places it in an abstract environment where the ranges of colors
dark, but accompanied by ochres, make the drawing vibrate, which is the primary motif of
the canvas. Danielle Burgart's painting is like a stroke of the pencil, with its precision,
its strength, its dynamism."
Christian GERMAK – ART GAZETTE INTERNATIONAL
A metaphor for our humanity
Danielle Burgart's universe is populated by bodies placed in unusual and disturbing environments reminiscent of those in the works of Paul Delvaux or Max Ernst.
His characters, half-human, half-animal, solidly modeled by shadows and light, are frozen in mid-movement, muscles tense. Inexpressive, they are nothing more than visible remnants of being, the only means of communication and relationship with their fellow beings.
Paradoxically, these bodies, lacking a precise identity, become fields of pure expression, far exceeding their limits. The tension suggests a latent violence, ready to explode, but without destructive intent. It is, in a way, the materialization of the animalistic or inhuman aspect that resides in every being and seeks to dissolve into the sensuality of its environment. A kind of inner rebellion embodied solely by the posture of the body, but without personalization or psychologizing.
A metaphor for our humanity.
Louis Doucet - Collector and exhibition curator
The speaking body
The body that speaks, that expresses strength, the passage of time, desire. Danielle Burgart wants us to feel all the emotions that a man's or woman's body can evoke.
The bodies are placed in a universe that is sometimes strange, abstract, or meaningless. An environment that highlights the characters thus staged.
The body as a reflection of the soul. Which bears within it the mark of time, the voluptuousness of the skin, the marks of caresses and thus attains its fullness.
To emphasize this point, Danielle Burgart removes faces or replaces them with the heads of birds of prey, thus contrasting a predatory mindset and culture with the fragility of human beings and their isolation from the world around them. The fragility of humanity, of human beings, is linked to the ephemeral nature of the physical body. This is why her bodies are a call to life, to seize it while it still pulsates and breathes.
Only thought remains. It is through thought that Danielle Burgart makes her characters live beyond their own lives.
Lucien Ruimy - Living Art Magazine