Caroline Rennequin

Caroline Rennequin was born in 1970. She now lives and works in Paris. She graduated from the Ecole Estienne in 1988, from Duperré in 1990 and from the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in 1993. Today, she works as a set designer in the luxury and fashion sectors. She first worked for Isabel Marant and Annick Goutal and has been artistic director of Jérôme Dreyfuss since 2007. She creates all the window displays for the designer’s boutiques, including sculptures, paintings and furniture.

“Les Fleurs” is an emblematic series of Caroline Rennequin’s work. They are the product of years of painting and research into affinities with the subject. These are gouaches on handmade paper (from India), to which the artist attaches great importance. For her, the medium needs to contain a strong story before she can even paint on it.

The Flowers give her the opportunity to work in full colour, without any prior drawing. They are based on a principle of harmony and balance in form that she calls “variations”. She compares them to snowflakes, all different but automatically identified by the “snowflake shape”.

This series is linked to notions of ecology. The artist wishes to re-evaluate the mirror principle that exists between man and nature. She expresses her desire for equality between all living things: whether human or plant, we need to show respect and humility towards our environment and those who inhabit it.

From an aesthetic point of view, Fleurs is a personal synthesis of the eras through which the artist has passed. It begins with imagery from the 70s, and then creates a purely contemporary motif. She also refers to the aesthetics of comic books and seeks to represent an almost ‘pneumatic’ form. In this way, her Flowers can even be seen as abstractions, materialising ideas and concepts rather than actual floral essences.