Producing is a wish, a desire, sometimes even a necessity.
One’s own definition, a constant need.
Paul Pflughaupt draws lines, again and again.
To him, the gesture matters more than the result. More than the definition, the perception of the work.
Architect by trade, Pflughaupt has nothing left to prove. Few artists can say the same.
Here remains a graphic freedom of expression. In his works, the line stands, flows, but never intersects. No matter where it comes from, no matter where it goes, it is all about its journey, its road, made of turns and detours, but rarely uncertain.
While looking at these lines, one cannot ignore a certain geographic vision of space.
Pflughaupt himself classifies them under the definition of “cartomorphie”.
Does this mean that his paintings, or his drawings, are maps? That would be a deeply incomplete way to sum up the question. Of course streets, cities and the materiality of their surface can be perceived there, as so many parts of a site, or of a labyrinth if you wish. This presence is undeniable, and it links the origin of these images to the our world, to our time time, in a geometric modernity which frames all movements, in a logical reality where anyone can follow a ready-made path, where everyone can get lost and yet never stand still.
This perception is there, yet the lines cannot be reduced to it. Watch them just a little longer, and they’ll discreetly start drawing your own thoughts in your eyes.
Pierre-Nicolas Bounakoff, Art Historian and Independent Curator
Practicing architect, founder of a known agency, Paul Pflughaupt combines dream and reality, art and architecture in an organic and structured whole.
From his studies at the School of Architecture in Nantes, at the Fachhochschule Hamburg and his encounter with the German-French artist Ekkehart Rautenstrauch, drawing, sculpture and cinema have always been the breeding ground for his architectural and artistic creation.
He works with the idea of infusing this richness into his production whatever the subject or scale.
He is also involved in exchanges and collaboration with other artists around specific productions.