Bernard Bouts (1909 - 1986)
Bernard Bouts was a painter and philosopher of art. He was born on December 2, 1909, in Versailles, France, into a Flemish family line that included the painter Thierry (Dieric) Bouts. He spent his childhood in Brittany, where his fascination with the sea was awakened. He began his art studies in 1929 with Henri Charlier, from whom he absorbed principles such as the elimination of chiaroscuro and the pursuit of a free rhythm in painting, to which he remained faithful throughout his life.
He left France in 1942, during the Second World War, moving to Argentina with his wife and children. He held his first solo exhibition in Buenos Aires in 1943 and exhibited there again in 1951, at the Galería Wildenstein. He traveled through several South American countries, broadening his visual and chromatic references.
In 1954, he began sailing aboard the sailboat Andariego. In 1961, he acquired the schooner Cisne in Bahia, on which he lived and painted for ten years, traveling the entire Brazilian coast. A large part of his work was devoted to seascapes, reflecting his deep bond with the sea. He stayed apart from the avant-gardes and the art market, faithful to his aesthetic vision, inspired by ancient traditions such as Egyptian, Byzantine and medieval art. He died having always remained an independent, nonconformist artist.
The Artist
For three years, Bouts attended and taught courses in the philosophy of art in France.
In this way he sought to find his own path, from which he never strays. Only a great artist pays the high price of such uncompromising fidelity to himself, not least because only he is able, patiently and harmoniously, to combine the most solid craft and technical knowledge with the most refined pictorial language. It is thus understandable that from early on - from his decisive encounter with Henri Charlier - Bouts proved receptive to the call of the essential, strict values of painting and sculpture, while also attentive to their decorative elements and aspects, which always deserve consideration, since, contrary to what some think, they do not diminish the merits of any artistic work, precisely because they stem from the very visual beauty and enchantment of every authentic work of art. It would also be worth noting that he would never be an engaged artist! With regard to politics, as to this or that current of the so-called avant-garde of his youth or of today's precarious avant-garde, Bouts always remained an independent artist. It is as a man - not as an artist - that he held political, philosophical or religious positions. No one could steer him off the path he had chosen; he was utterly disdainful not only of artistic cliques, critical appraisals and judgments, but also of official exhibitions and salons. He was a nonconformist by nature. He was never interested in what the public might think about art, whether other people's or his own. Until the end of his life he remained faithful to the course he chose in his youth.
Bernard Bouts always held a solitary position in relation to painting and the other visual arts.
He rose up with irony or contempt against fashions and schools, against all the isms and art movements that unfolded in the Old World, especially over the course of this century. He fought the School of Paris and the incessant, successive, crushing changes - to him wholly unjustifiable - of art subjected to the tyranny of the market in consumer society. It is always stimulating, in this matter, to swim or, as in Bouts's case, to sail against the tide. Instead of seeking inspiration in Cubism, Surrealism and other manifestations of contemporary art, he prefers to exercise his admirable creative power by turning to cave painting, to the shapes of ancient jars, to the achievements of the artists of ancient China, Egypt, archaic Greece, Byzantium, the 13th-century Middle Ages and other eras. This is indeed a sui generis attitude. Its aim is to return to the constants of the periods he considered decisive in art history, driven by the characteristics of his mind and by specialized studies. Bernard Bouts saw no point in concerning himself with distinct periods or phases in his work, since he always worked in the same direction. It was not unusual for him to work on three paintings with different subjects and in different techniques at the same time.
His Relationship with the Sea
To better understand Bernard Bouts's life and work, we must know something of his bond with the sea, a life that marked him deeply from his youth in Brittany, sailing along its shores. He loved maritime civilization and its whole culture going back to the Phoenicians, which became for Bouts a second profession, complementing and enriching his art and his thought.
In South America, Bouts began sailing in 1954 aboard the sailboat called Andariego. He liked to sail with his wife and son (his daughter had died at the age of 7 in Buenos Aires), at the mercy of adventure or of the ever-capricious winds. In a handwritten text found in his book, Bouts compares his practice as a sailor to his work as a painter, thus equating the sailor's activity with his craft as a visual artist. The comparison is suggestive and rather singular in our country. This is another of the painter's original traits.
The Bouts family's stay in Argentina ended in 1954. The family left for Brazil aboard their boat, the Andariego, beginning numerous voyages around South America.
On a visit to Bahia, Bernard Bouts came across a schooner that fascinated him. He asked a friend to buy it for him if it happened to be put up for sale in his absence. Luck was with him, as it soon became available. And so, on February 1, 1961, he bought the Cisne, his beautiful schooner, on which he lived and painted. In this way, for ten years, he worked and traveled along the whole vast coast of Brazil, from Oiapoque to Chuí. From this life at sea, Bouts made seascapes one of the main subjects of his work.
Source: Artist's website
