CYB
The Gardens of Possible and Beyond
By Mylène VIGNON,
Art critic, Expert on contemporary Art
One could assume that studying philosophy has opened for her the realm of all possibilities, and given her this freedom she expresses, canvas after canvas. Her astonishing research of colors reveals the itinerary of a rich nomadic experience. Born in France, CYB grew up in New Caledonia. The contrasting colors of the tropics are naturally imprinted in her work.
Then she lived in Carthage, with its aromas of jasmine, bougainvillea. There, at fourteen, she experienced a beautiful meeting, with Ali Mourani, a copyist who made her discover Vermeer and Van Gogh.
She was seventeen when, back to Paris, she met Georges Mathieu, when introduced to him by a collector friend. It was a revelation! They remained in contact for several years, seeing each other once or twice a year. His comments about her researches opened wide the doors of total freedom. Mathieu, on one occasion, wrote for her with a quill:
“For Cybele admirable scholar of lyrical abstraction, with the admiration of George.”
The energy involved in her work, her specific way of harmonizing and balancing colors, her obstinacy in wanting, from the youngest age, to be a painter at all costs, are the premise of a work of excellence.
Action painter, she loves to express herself on large canvases, a format in which she feels more at ease.
The beautiful flight of lyrical abstraction led her quite naturally to address the theme of Venice in 2010. She evokes this city with the colors of her memory, on atypical formats, narrow and vertical like the half of a diptych.
In 2011, she received the trophy of the Golden Canvas of the Year given by the French Culture’s Federation for her canvas: “Chant” (Song).
Then came the Kyoto series, a pictorial form of meditation. She based those paintings on her imagination, enriched by her readings. The poetic flight brought by imagination is real indeed, for, as the prophet says, “nothing is real but our dreams”.
When I asked Cyb what would be her artistic dream, she answered, with stars in her eyes: “I would love to create sets for operas” So why not the Opera?
Meanwhile, this summer 2013, in Osaka, Cyb will exhibit two paintings of her Kyoto series: Omega and Gamma.