BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1977, Rodolphe Barsikian grew up in Sarcelles, a Paris suburb, in a cosmopolitan environment.
His passion for drawing does not arise from chance. As a child he spent entire days in his maternal grandfather’s textile workshop who transmitted him part of his Armenian cultural heritage.
Rodolphe Barsikian studied graphic design in Paris, following an artistic education at the Institut Supérieur des Arts Appliqués (LISAA), after studying at Ecole Professionnelle Su-périeure d’Arts Graphiques (EPSAA).
There he met some non academic but mostly recognized graphic design professionals: the artist Stéphane Calais and Rocco, illustrator at the daily newspaper Libération. But especially Maria Arnold, Swiss painter and also graphic designer, known for having been part of the militant collective GRAPUS, graphic designers active in the Parisian suburbs in the wake of 1968, who will deeply influence Rodolphe Barsikian’s artistic trajectory.
A stylist in the field of clothing then a professional graphic designer, Rodolphe Barsikian soon divided himself between active life and personal creation. It is step by step that he invented his own style. His computer-based compositions “vector” drawn, feed on specific patterns, which the artist weaves and connects with an emotional thread.
He chose to use digital technology, in a desire to dematerialize the graphic material, the central and aesthetic theme of his work. If his computer screen has supplanted the pain-ter’s canvas, it is by hand that he creates on this tool all the forms, all the lines that guide his creations.
He has taken part in several group exhibitions with his “Obsessions Vectorielles”.
A monograph by the author and art historian Paul Ardenne (Published by La Muette/Le Bord de l’Eau – 176 pages) was released in November 2020.
In March 2021, Rodolphe Barsikian presented for the first time in Paris a retrospective of his works, in an exhibition entitled DIGITAL LIFE, followed by an exhibition in Yerevan in november/december 2021 under the aegis of the French Embassy and Novembre Numérique.
In the summer of 2021, he participated to a collective exhibition curated by Paul Ardenne, entitled "Hybride4".
DIGITAL ART
Graphic artist, inventor of artistic forms, Rodolphe Barsikian is an artist of today: his favorite techniques are the computer, the computer mouse and graphic arts software. Adept of vector drawing, a digital script based on the point, the line, and geometrical organization, his compositions cumulate “the clear line” of technical drawing and an abundant power of aesthetic invention.
In abstract style, above all, as paintings or 3D modules, his creations are controlled, extremely chiseled but at the same time also eruptive, marked by an implicit fascination for disorder, disorganization, putting things back in play.
For Rodolphe Barsikian, to create implies going beyond the sole artistic effect and inscribe his life in lines, graphic trajectories that amplify an existential path in the material of visual signs. His compositions generate the strong and compulsive image of an existence in movement in which, to that end, drawing is the heartbeat, the seismograph: recording every pulsating moment, every vibration, every sensation.
Paul Ardenne
MONOGRAPHIE
Dans cet échange avec l'écrivain et historien de l'art Paul Ardenne, Rodolphe Barsikian retrace son itinéraire d'artiste depuis ses débuts.
Dessinateur, inventeur de formes plastiques, Rodolphe Barsikian est un artiste d’aujourd’hui. Adepte du dessin vectoriel, une graphie numérique fondée sur le point, la ligne et l’organisation géométrique, ses compositions cumulent la « ligne claire » du dessin technique et une foisonnante puissance d’invention esthétique. Déclinées en tableaux ou en agencements modulaires 3D, ses créations sont à la fois ciselées à l’extrême et éruptives.
Créer, pour Rodolphe Barsikian, implique d’aller au-delà le seul effet plastique, et d’inscrire sa vie dans des lignes, des trajectoires graphiques qui redoublent, dans la matière visuelle des signes, un chemin existentiel.
