Collector's Club

Interview with Marc Wagner - The pleasure of painting

For this latest edition of the Interview, Art Work Circle went to meet the Luxembourg painter Marc Wagner between the walls of the Fellner Contemporary gallery, where he is currently presenting the "Grande réserve" exhibition until 24 February. An opportunity to talk about colour and experimentation.

Briefly introduce yourself:

I like to observe, watch and contemplate. I love being faced with a challenge, no matter how difficult, and finding solutions.

That's also why I paint big pictures, even though I know it's hard to sell, I do it because it's a challenge and it gives me pleasure. The challenge, the creation, the experimentation, all these things describe my character to some extent.

When and how did you come into contact with art?

When my brothers and I were children, my mother used to cook a lot of Soubry pasta... I don't know if it still exists. On the packets of noodles there were collectable vouchers with which you could order reproductions of artists from all over art history. From the classical to the contemporary... well to the modern in time, since it was in the 50s. There was always a selection of four reproductions of an artist's work. My brothers and I would choose the artist and my father would place the order. One time it was Rembrandt, another Picasso, another Magritte, Michelangelo, a bit of everything. They were beautiful A4 reproductions with an explanatory text for each work, which we put together in albums. We had a whole bunch of them, and we looked at them a lot, so we got hooked... That's one of the reasons why one of my brothers and I got into art, Pit WagnerWe became artists. That was my first contact with art. It has to be said that my father had also done some watercolours, which weren't bad!

Tell us about your artistic approach:

My artistic approach is first and foremost to look, to contemplate. When I see something that interests me or I have an idea, I think about it for a long time.
before making
I do a few sketches on paper, then I work digitally on iPad, and finally I transfer it to canvas in the same way.
All the paintings are separate projects and that's why they're quite different from each other. There is a guideline in the style, but if you look at them closely they are all different in concept and subject.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Often when I'm out walking. But sometimes I have flashes of inspiration. For example, My Umbrella, my castle (see photo) is an idea that came to me. Not all ideas find their place and don't always become a painting. Inspiration also comes from other artists, for example Matisse, David Hockney, Peter Doig, Alex Katz and many others. I'm often told that there's a naïve aspect to my work, like that of Douanier Rousseau, but it's not really a source of inspiration.

What messages/emotions do you want to convey through your work?

I don't have a precise message, but I think it's my character and intuition that come across in my paintings. I'm always told that they're very colourful and reflect optimism, that there's a joie de vivre that emanates from them. Which is paradoxical, because in reality my mind is very critical, I'm a fairly critical and sceptical person, but that's not what comes across in my paintings. There's no real message, just hidden metaphors.

If you had to choose one work of which you are most proud, why?

Frankly, there's no particular work of which I'm prouder than others, but I'm still a bit proud of everything I've done, without being pretentious, I'm quite modest. Perhaps I'm a bit proud of having dared to design paintings that can be turned around and looked at upside down, which gives a different perception (for example, My Umbrella, my castle).

There is one particular project that comes to mind. My daughter is a marine biologist in Mayotte and every year they do an art project with their centre, so she asked me to paint a wall.
It was an 11 x 2.5 metre fresco, more or less. I did the preparatory work and completed it in less than three days under an oppressive sun. They had to hold a parasol for me to work under (laughs) and then there was a heavy tropical downpour so all the paint ran out but I didn't let it discourage me. I went for a coffee while it passed and then I started again. In three days it was finished! It was a participative and educational project with children in difficulty. I painted healthy corals with fish, beautiful colours, sea turtles and on the other part of the wall the corals are invaded by rubbish, a washing machine, tyres etc. I was quite proud to do this. I was quite proud to carry out this project in difficult conditions in less than three days, including half a day with children. There was a report on TV.

What are your future projects?

I have two commissions to complete and an exhibition to prepare. It's going to be a busy year!

What was the first thing you did this morning?I thought about how to organise my day

What is the subject of your work in a nutshell? Ego to

You'd never leave home without... My keys and my credit card

Your happy place : Lhe family, the workshop, nature

Your guilty pleasure : A good meal

Your favourite word : Love

What is your dream project? I want to carry on doing what I'm doing because I'm passionate about it. But there are two aspects to it: on the private side, it's being with my family, and my dream professional project would be to be able to continue experimenting.

 

Interview by Art Work Circle
Photo credits: Christof Weber, Marc Wagner