A CLASSIC FOUNDATION

TOFFART naturally followed the family tradition by learning the trade of carpentry. At the same time, he has nurtured a predisposition for drawing since a very young age. This innate ability has developed both in artistic and technical expression. As a result, his art has been shaped by a dual rigor: the practice of figurative art through anthropomorphic representation, and technical accuracy through a focus on interior architecture and its own language, the technical drawing made on a drawing board.UNE BASE CLASSIQUE

 

At the beginning of his career as a visual artist, this dual graphic culture is reflected in figurative works described as hyperrealistic by critics. TOFFART disputes this classification. This initial creative choice can be explained by the influence of his cultural upbringing, which was strongly marked by academicism. As a result, TOFFART was drawn to genre painting from childhood, particularly classic portraiture. From his earliest works, he rigorously applied conventional painting techniques, perfecting his art through book-based study, observing the masterpieces of great masters and their techniques, as well as through direct experimentation. From a draftsman, he evolved into a painter, moving from paper to canvas stretched over a frame in the late 1990s. Very quickly, the framed canvas became too narrow to express his creativity. He returns to the very roots of oil painting by reclaiming the techniques used by the Flemish primitives. Thus, he adopts the technique of painting on wooden panels of non-standard dimensions, then on canvas mounted on a panel, in order to adjust the composition of the subject. As for the painting process, TOFFART works with successive glazes starting from a sketch made in pencil. His spiritual masters are Hans HOLBEIN, Philippe DE CHAMPAIGNE, Hyacinthe RIGAUD, Maurice QUENTIN DE LA TOUR, Jacques-Louis DAVID, and Jean-Dominique INGRES.

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This first creative phase is essentially based on the art of commissioned work. In fact, TOFFART very early on defines himself as a free artist who prefers to choose his subjects according to his inspiration rather than be subjected to the tyranny of a client-imposed model. This principle gives him the opportunity to diversify his production, allowing him to tackle all themes derived from anthropomorphic representation, such as historical scenes, the nude, or self-portrait. Through this figurative expression, TOFFART's art mainly reveals his almost obsessive desire to geometrically structure the space of the canvas through rigorous construction. To achieve this, he bases his compositions on the golden ratio and on the use of dimension transfer through triangulation. This need to divide space with lines, to structure his works, leads him to free himself from the theme, retaining only the geometric framework and the way he modulates it to become a work in its own right. This evolution leads TOFFART towards abstract art at the end of the 1910s.

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FROM HYPERREALISM TO GEOMETRISM

This artistic evolution is originally based on a distant fascination with works painted by masters of geometric abstraction in general, and more particularly those devoted to kinetic art, such as MONDRIAN, VASARELY, or Fernand LEGER, but also visual artists like Frank STELLA or Sol LEWITT. They all illustrate TOFFART's attraction to the rationalized geometrization of space. The artist's transition to abstraction occurred following an anecdotal event. On a snowy morning, TOFFART slipped on one of the many plates installed at pedestrian crossings. These rectangular plates embedded at the edge of sidewalks, consisting of a pattern of half-spherical heads, caught his attention more than usual. From this accidental attraction to a rather ordinary piece of urban furniture, TOFFART created an elementary module, a basic fraction graphically summarized by a circle within a square.

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This conceptual creation is not just triggered by an everyday life event. It is the culmination of an artistic reappraisal intended to introduce a previously untapped universe. To achieve this, a creative act was needed that summarizes and synthesizes an original artistic reflection. Indeed, the creation of the module is based on an observation long held by the artist: the untapped universe of the infinitely small in nature. Despite its invisibility, it contains a fully original world, made up of forms and colors revealed by scientific imaging at the microscope scale. As such, the module perfectly conveys this invisible universe made up of simple geometric shapes. The module resembles a living cell, with the circle symbolizing the nucleus and the square its outer membrane. Like a brick from which it is possible to create complex organisms, the module can be infinitely varied through changes in size, line thickness, or color. It should be noted that empty spaces enliven the compositions. Symbolically, they oppose the material represented by the module, a visual translation of the formula of the Greek philosopher DEMOCRITUS: "The universe is composed of atoms and voids." The colored threads that wind between the modules and empty spaces are like veins through which the fluids, the energy of the organisms, flow.

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But for TOFFART, the module can also translate the infinitely large aspects of nature. This dimension draws its inspiration from geographic imagery, with its aerial views that reveal the diversity of terrestrial landscapes: urban structures made up of buildings and streets, rural landscapes divided into agricultural plots. The composition is no longer the enlargement of a microcosm, but the reduction of a macrocosm. Vast spaces are symbolically reduced to express their form and structure. It is particularly urban space that focuses this change of scale in TOFFART's work. His main source of inspiration consists of North American cities, well known for their grids of perpendicular streets. The blocks of buildings and skyscrapers are elements typical of a modern city, similar to the constituent organs of a living organism. Certainly, architectural forms vary, but their geometric translation, bordering on the glyph, remains the same for the artist: a circle within a square, a graphic representation of a standard construction.

Through his compositions inspired by urban environments, TOFFART thus conveys variety within the unity of architecture, using his module according to the same variations as in organic compositions (sizes, colors, lines), allowing for infinite possibilities. The interspaces have become the streets through which vehicles circulate, much like a bodily fluid. The shaded areas symbolize various unbuilt spaces: squares, parking lots, agoras, industrial wastelands. They contribute to the dynamic of the compositions.

 

​​Technically, TOFFART paints his abstract compositions using flat areas of color. He has chosen acrylic paint, which is better suited to this type of creation. Indeed, the use of drawing instruments requires him to work flat, like MONDRIAN. However, he has remained faithful to his preferred support: a wooden panel pasted with a fine-grain linen canvas that has been pre-sized and then coated by him. The sketch is always done in hard lead pencil. On the other hand, the format of the works is directly derived from the module. They are square or multiples of squares, which constitutes both a constraint and a creative challenge, since TOFFART's concept suggests connecting the infinitely small with the infinitely large. 

The reference to nature, from what it expresses in its most basic form to logically leading to the adoption of a limited range of colors: the 3 primary colors and the 3 secondary colors, to which black and white are added. This restricted chromatic choice immediately suggested the creation of series with a monochromatic dominance, punctuated by the other colors to give rhythm to the whole. This is the case with the series of Funnies, Cities, Black Kissies, White Countries, and Fantasies. TOFFART's works are not meant to be framed. The artist considers his works as living organisms that need to breathe with the space.

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The multiple possibilities of the module created by TOFFART suggest vast variations. The artist's recent geometric compositions are still tied to conventional pictorial representation. Painting is still the mode of expression used to convey his concept. However, the infinite possibilities it holds allow for much bolder developments, which are already in the making. They will combine chromatic and volumetric representation, as well as material, in order to break free from the strict framework of conventional linearity. As for themes, TOFFART has multiple sources of inspiration that allow him to use his module as a basic element for compositions with a more symbolic connotation, as suggested by 'the French Flag.'

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Charles TOFFART

Paris, June 18 2017

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