Until March 19, the New York gallery Miguel Abreu presents the exhibition of François-Marie Banier entitled: Writings and Pictures.
“I don’t know if I have any talent, and I won’t be able to know it, neither will you, nor your children, history wins (will it be capable of knowing it?) but I’m 18 years old and nurture ambitions, too many perhaps, I love life and very much like myself. I have many qualities and few, very few friends, one doesn’t go without the other by the way. I very much like to paint, to write, to sleep; that is to say that I like being myself and being others all at once, because when I sleep, write, paint, it is never all me but also those I like, hate, in the end those who interest me. My friends and enemies are equally dear to me because they give me a taste for life, which is already too much for me. I’m criticized for being a character, but to the contrary pride myself for being one. I hate banality and fear originality, one like the other doesn’t lead to much. I’m criticized for speaking too much about myself, but maybe that’s because people don’t particularly interest me. I speak of myself in the third person, a sympathetic third person indeed, but at least I speak about something I know, and when I speak of it I’m never biased, I speak of it as if I were someone else. My life, life is me. I’m overflowing with vitality, I devour time like a starving being. I do have the right to eat the one who devours me. But I don’t struggle uselessly because I give meaning to my life which otherwise would be flat, banal, wouldn’t be mine. I write, I paint, I sleep and give others a hard time. It is beautiful to be eighteen, to live, to watch yourself live, to observe others watching you live. It’s beautiful, it’s funny, it’s living, right?” – François-Marie Banier, 30.1.66
François-Marie Banier : Writings and Pictures
Until March 19, 2023
Miguel Abreu Gallery
88 Eldridge Street / 36 Orchard Street, New York, NY 10002
212.995.1774
www.miguelabreugallery.com
New hours: Wednesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm
