Christian de Laubadère Hong Merchant

Biography
Main Exhibitions
Artwork

Biography

Christian de Laubadère... his name and aura as a Gascon Baron are already an invitation to another world, filled with new paths and rising tides. A paradoxical chameleon and simple society man, ChdeL surprises as much as he reassures us with his character and sensibility. Like a mahout in a white tuxedo he is very much one of the Gurus in vogue in contemporary Shanghai.

Using mixed media of charcoal and graphite applied to paper-on-canvas atop delicate wood shavings, he brings together Chinese and Indian embroidered collars and the finest antique lace from Calles. In a more technical sense Laubadere achieves a vapourous effect by applying ash- shades as a foundation. His use of black-fumes to blacken the paper is perhaps an homage to several concepts spawned by the philosopher Heidegger.

Christian loves to use women’s hair through his art. His ability to show a woman’s head and be able to tell a story about her is one of his most unique qualities. His subjects, usually with long, think, braided hair can therefore be interpreted with phallic-symbolism, while the crevice at the nape of the neck is a subtly-vulvic image.

His influence of the Chinese culture is shown dramatically through his work. As you probably know, the female Chinese hair style is very uniform as the color and texture rarely differ from person to person. Christian has managed to find a way of creating beauty out of the monotony. His ability to show a woman’s hair explains the culture, you can not only tell that the subject has black hair, but comes from an eastern background. His use of charcoal with the hint of Chinese red brings out the old China stylistic viewpoints.

His work therefore exists permanently exists within a parallel universe, where the art of today is set alongside myriad historical art-references. The artist, through his unique approach and appreciation of beauty, offers us – at the same time – a vision of impermanence, which is essentially personal and universal in its appeal.