To quickly review a few specific schemas of abstraction in painting, let us first recall that the pictorial sign was traditionally conceived in terms of its figurative relationship with the real thing it represented. The main effect of this reciprocal relationship between the visible and the nameable has been to dilute the attention given to materiality. For this reason, to put it cautiously, the qualifier of \u201cabstract\u201d has been problematic for a long time, in the sense that a non-figurative painting was seen as devoid of identifiable figures. This conception, however, overlooked an obvious fact\u200a\u2014\u200anamely, that an abstract work is in no way deprived of visual elements. On the contrary, it is fundamentally composed of concrete and expressive materials that supplant recognizable motifs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ianick](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/114_DO_Bannon_Ianick-Raymond_Paintskin4_2023-C-FondBlanc-FLAT-scaled.jpg\")
Paint skin (4)<\/em>, 122 x 244 cm, 2023.
Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay, courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, to paraphrase art historian Georges Roque, the unit of meaning in abstract works can depend on the pairing made between certain formal characteristics associated with an object, concept, or impression.1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 1 <\/a> - Georges Roque, Qu\u2019est-ce que l\u2019art abstrait\u2009? <\/em>(Paris: Gallimard, 2003), 307.<\/span> Has the line not already been described as fluid, vibrant, or dynamic? Has a hue not been qualified as delicate or glossy? Or chiaroscuro been subsumed under tenebrism? This inclination stems from the fact that the expressive value of a material signified is automatically generated based on prior perceptions; in other words, it is founded on the impressions that various things or forms in plastic media have made on us. In this regard, French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty rightly asserts that \u201cperceiving and imagining are now only two modes of thinking.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Visible and the Invisible<\/em>, trans. Alphonso Lingis (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1968), 29.<\/span> This conception has nonetheless been slow to take root.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although interest in the formal dimensions (configuration, size, texture, colour, etc.) of artworks started to develop at the turn of the twentieth century, a few decades had to pass before the works\u2019 substance<\/em> became the subject<\/em> of art.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n This paradigm shift occurred in the wake of the post\u200a-\u200aSecond World War American art movement of Abstract Expressionism. According to this movement, aesthetic judgment must exclude any rational elaboration based on information external to the painting\u2019s physical reality, and visual arts analyses must draw exclusively on the works\u2019 material substrate. At least, this is what an influential art critic at the time, Clement Greenberg, claimed. In his view, an artwork is not supposed to mean but to be.3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 3 <\/a> - Clement Greenberg, \u201cModernist Painting,\u201d Art and Literature <\/em>4 (Spring 1965): 193\u2013201.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n All things considered, in order to fully engage with a non-figurative universe, we must agree to relinquish our quest for recognition, unburden ourselves of a reassuring knowledge for the benefit of a perceptual casualness. It is precisely this unburdening that Raymond, Bouchard, and Ratt\u00e9 have chosen to cultivate by venturing into the meanders of abstraction, where the clarity of certitude vanish\u200a\u2014\u200athe alluring ambiguity that Raymond, for whom materiality and its effects on the perception of a painted image never run dry, persistently cultivates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For many years, Ianick Raymond has experimented with pigments in order to draw out forms under the auspices of exploration and accident. Unforeseen occurrences are central to his visually complex pictorial production, which is dominated by multidirectional graphic convolutions that he exploits in order to move away from programmed, mechanical gestures\u200a\u2014\u200athat is, the disembodied gestures of artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His systematic use of chance is regulated, however, by a surprisingly rigorous multi-step process. The first steps consist in applying pigments to a canvas in an aleatory manner, then covering it with a web of meticulously drawn lines. He then photographs the painting and digitally edits the image, altering the dimensions and recalibrating the colours. Lastly, the digital photograph is printed on the original canvas with a printer capable of affixing ink to pigment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In their final phase, Raymond\u2019s paintings depict fluctuating textural and chromatic superpositions, the entanglement of which aims to slow down the time it takes to apprehend them. Through this tracery, he encourages viewers to let their eyes wander in the labyrinth of amassed pigments, tacitly leading them to take a moment and allow their gaze to dive into the texture of their experience, into the depth of their being.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n Whereas Raymond proceeds by accumulating materials, J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bouchard endeavours to remove the paint applied beforehand to linen canvases, which he alters\u200a\u2014\u200aby smoking, burning, dirtying, perforating, cutting, tearing\u200a\u2014\u200ain order to represent geographies with blurred contours. In reality, the formal substructures visible on the surface of his paintings are inspired by mapping data recorded with geomatics equipment known under the acronym LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which aims to evaluate the precise impact of human activity on the terrain. The data collected by a 3D scanner resemble a point cloud, which Bouchard translates into two dimensions, using a laser to carefully perforate and cut canvases covered with iridescent colours. The resulting ethereal landscapes oscillate between abstraction and figuration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Comparable to memories, these intentionally unrecognizable landscapes are intended not only to challenge the sharpness of digital images of geological and geographical sites altered by time or climate change but also to spark the imagination of viewers, who are invited to move around in front of the works so as to see them more clearly. For example, the painting 31UDQ4997320579<\/em> (2024) is composed of motifs with evanescent contours that become increasingly enigmatic the more time we spend contemplating them. This disillusion, resulting from a loss of referents, materializes none other than the disillusionment<\/em> of the artist, who is concerned about ongoing environmental and ecological degradation. In essence, by deconstructing his canvases, Bouchard evokes the deterioration of natural spaces; he also encourages us to meditate on humanity\u2019s ambiguous relationships with nature and machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A different range of ecosystems drive Sabrina Ratt\u00e9\u2019s creative considerations, as she explores the convergence of technology, biology, and the speculative evolution of our environment. The cornerstones of her work are, on the one hand, the development of virtual spaces that question the influence exerted by architecture and digital contexts on our perception of the world and, on the other hand, our relationship with digital technology. Although she is especially interested in diverse manifestations of the virtual image and 3D animation, she also explores myriad modes of expression, including video, printing, sculpture, virtual reality, installation, photography, and the idea of painting, particularly in the Nu\u00e9e<\/em> series (2020), which merges digital and painting aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For this series, Ratt\u00e9 gleaned from the internet different reproductions representing large brushstrokes as well as computer-generated drawings. She then used these graphic data to create video, sculptural, and photographic works that figure paint characteristics. As evidenced in the digital image Nu\u00e9e<\/em>, the impastos are entirely artificial, as they do not relate to the images\u2019 material properties but are, instead, the result of digital layouts created by Ratt\u00e9. Nevertheless, like those perceptible in Raymond\u2019s and Bouchard\u2019s paintings, these colourful marks are expressive phenomena that shift perceptual patterns and highlight the operations corresponding to the development of Ratt\u00e9\u2019s creations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The epicentre of the aforementioned artworks hinges on the material conditions of the work\u2019s potential. Furthermore, it relates to the foundational dynamics of making, of poiein<\/em>\u200a\u2014\u200aof performing an action. For Raymond, Bouchard, and Ratt\u00e9, every work arises from a processual series of steps, which leads to a broader reflection on the crucible of artistic labour. This aspect concerns poiesis in particular. Understood as a discipline, in the words of art theorist Chlo\u00e9 Persillet, poiesis is used \u201cto reveal not the dynamics of <\/em>the work but the dynamics at<\/em> work\u201d4<\/sup>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 4 <\/a> - Chlo\u00e9 Persillet, \u201cPo\u00ef\u00e9tique, pratique et th\u00e9orie\u2009: m\u00e9thodologie de la recherche en arts plastiques,\u201d Marges<\/em> 2, no. 39 (2024): 23 (our translation).<\/span>\u2014\u200ain other words, the act of creating. It essentially concerns the manner in which images are made and opens a way \u201cthrough\u201d the substances of the medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yet poiesis can prove to be just as loquacious when we approach it in terms of how artworks captivate us. When looking at abstract works, we need to decode not so much representations of reality but the sensations felt when physically and conceptually experiencing the materials used to create them. Resulting from a pairing of painting and digital technology, the works of Raymond, Bouchard, and, by extension, Ratt\u00e9 focus our attention on their material elements above all. By \u201creading\u201d aspects related to materiality\u200a\u2014\u200aeven a virtual one\u200a\u2014\u200awe animate the images through our sensorial perceptions. In so doing, we engage in what might be called a poiesis of reception. This is how these three artists invite us to let our eyes wander across the pictorial surfaces and observe the painterly traces felt while experiencing the raw material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translated from the French by Oana Avasilichioaei<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With a PhD in semiology, Lynn Bannon is an associate professor in the department of art history at Universit\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec \u00e0 Montr\u00e9al, as well as a lecturer and curator. Her research and publications focus mainly on citationality in contemporary imagery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To what extent does formalism still play a role in contemporary art? This question might raise a few eyebrows, especially for those who see abstraction as an outmoded concept. Yet, it is important<\/br>to recognize that this notion, a priori conceptual before being associated with a concrete externalization, persists. As evidence of this, many artists today develop their work based on material considerations, in particular those offered by painting, in order to lay claim to an expression of thoughts, ideas, sensations, or emotions produced by formal information. Such artists include Ianick Raymond, J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bouchard, and Sabrina Ratt\u00e9.<\/br>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":268356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[882],"tags":[],"numeros":[7491],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[7414],"artistes":[7471,3258,1921],"thematiques":[],"type_post":[],"class_list":["post-268379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-post","numeros-114-abstractions-en","auteurs-lynn-bannon-en","artistes-ianick-raymond-en","artistes-jerome-bouchard-en","artistes-sabrina-ratte-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268379"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268382,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268379\/revisions\/268382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=268379"},{"taxonomy":"type_post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_post?post=268379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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![\"J\u00e9r\u00f4me](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/114_DO_Bannon_Jerome-Bouchard_biaisn01_2024-scaled.jpg\")
biais no 01<\/em>, 63 x 79 cm, 2024.
Photo: courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Fortuitous and the Systematic<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Ianick](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/114_DO_Bannon_Jerome-Bouchard_OOPArt2.2_2024.jpg\")
OOPArt 2.2<\/em>, 168 x 120 cm, 2024.
Photo: Paul Litherland, courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAlteration as Meditative Process<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"J\u00e9r\u00f4me](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/114_DO_Bannon_Jerome-Bouchard_31UDQ4997320579_2024-scaled.jpg\")
31UDQ4997320579<\/em>, 98 x 78 cm, 2024.
Photo: Guy L\u2019Heureux, courtesy of the artist & Galeries Bellemare Lambert, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/114_DO_Bannon_Jerome-Bouchard_31UDQ4995020583_2024-1-scaled.jpg\")
31UDQ4995020583<\/em>, 98 \u00d7 78 cm, 2024.
Photo: Guy L\u2019Heureux, courtesy of the artist & Galeries Bellemare Lambert, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nPainting Digitally<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Sabrina](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/114_DO_Bannon_Sabrina-Ratte-Nuee-2020-scaled.jpg\")
Nu\u00e9e<\/em>, 50 x 100 cm, 2020.
Photo: courtesy of the artist & ELLEPHANT, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"Sabrina](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/114_DO_Bannon_Sabrina-Ratte-RADIANCESVI-2018-scaled.jpg\")
Radiances VI<\/em>, 56 x 100 cm, 2018.
Photo: courtesy of the artist & ELLEPHANT, Montr\u00e9al<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nExploring Action and Getting It Done<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n