Comme pour les
Impressionnistes et les Divisionnistes, la recherche de la vrit du
ton local est la base de son Art. Ses ciels
sont bleus et ses fleurs ressemblantes. Mais
il les veut, ses ciels du plus beau bleu. Et ses
bouquets harmonisent, en les exaltant
au suprme degr, des coloris exacts. S'il
rehausse, c'est partir de la ralit sensible
et non pas d'une potisation plus ou moins
arbitraire.
C'est ainsi qu'on ne saurait confondre ses
paysages de Provence avec ceux qu'il a
peints en Ile-de-France ou dans les campagnes du
Centre. Et c'est ainsi encore que ses
portraits, ses personnages, ne laissent jamais
d'offrir au regard les particularits qui
leur sont propres. Ce visionnaire est tout
d'abord un raliste intransigeant. Dans l'tat
actuel du monde des Arts, il faut avoir beaucoup
de courage pour manifester autant
d'indpendance et d'originalit.
Comment Serge Mendjisky parvient-il composer
ses radieuses mosaques de
gemmes dont ses tableaux ont la prcieuse apparence
? Il fait venir de Chine les
pigments, minraux et vgtaux, broys l'huile
de soja, qui forment sa palette,
strictement organise, comme un clavier o
chaque touche correspondrait une
couleur en son absolue puret. Il l'utilise,
cette couleur, telle qu'on la voit sortir du
tube, sans mlange amoindrissant: huit bleus
dont trois de cobalt, cinq verts, trois
rouges, trois vermillons, quatre jaunes, un rose
indien, un rose, un seul brun. Son outil
ordinaire n'est pas la brosse, mais un jeu spatules
acrines, symbole de la volont ferme et
lucide qui dirige et discipline sa production.
Un danger la menaait : la systmatisation.
Mais Serge Mendjisky, dj accorde davantage
la spontanit, au naturel, la nuance,
tmoins, ses oeuvres rcentes, de plus en plus
souples, si fraches, excutes comme
en se jouant, afin, comme le recommandait dj
notre Jean-Philippe Rameau de
cacher l'Art par l'Art lui-mme.
MAXIMILIEN GAUTHIER Les
Nouvelles Littraires
As for the Impressionists and Divisionists, the quest
for true local colour is the
cornerstone
of his art. His skies are blue and his flowers look like flowers. But he
wants
his skies to be the most beautiful of blues. And in exalting them to the
highest
degree,
his bouquets harmoniously reflect authentic colours. If he intensifies them,
it's
to correspond with the reality of the senses rather than to create a poetic
effect
of
a more or less arbitrary kind.
His tributes to Provence could thus hardly be confused with those he
painted of the
Ile-de-France
or the countryside of central France. And his portraits and figures
never
tire of showing the spectator those particular features which are their very
own.
This visionary is first and foremost an uncompromising realist. In the
current state
of
affairs in the art world, one has to have a great deal of courage to
demonstrate so
much
independence and originality.
How does Serge Mendjisky compose these radiant mosaics, these paintings
that so
resemble
precious gems ? He has mineral and vegetable pigments crushed in soya oil
sent
from China ; they form his palette, which is strictly organized, rather like a
keyboard
on which each key corresponds to a colour of absolute purity. He uses this
colour,
just as we see it coming out of the tube, without reducing or mixing it. Eight
blues
including three cobalts, five greens, three reds, three vermilions, four
yellows,
an
Indian rose, a pink and a brown. His usual tool is not a brush but a set of
metal
spatulas,
symbolizing the strong and lucid determination which directs and
disciplines
his production. Which was faced by one threat : systemisation.
But
Serge Mendjisky has always attributed more importance to spontaneity,
naturalness
and nuances, as witnessed by his recent works, which are increasingly
supple
and remarkably fresh. Executed as if in play, in order, as once recommended
by
Jean-Philippe Rameau, to hide Art by Art itself.
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