The Path of the MANOIRS in Painting.
Testimony of a Bohemian working for the MANOIRS©.

— A Chivalric Epic in the Darkness.

Here’s how it all began: at the age of 19, I entered as an apprentice in the workshop of the Flemish Master José GILI. I learned the technique of oil glazing by creating copies of masterworks. I quickly gravitated towards the Romantic movement of the 19th century, English landscape painters, and more specifically the painter Joseph Mallord William Turner.

When my master would come to observe me working, he had a very unique way of teaching me painting: through riddles. He would say, “Add some light,” and then leave. I naturally tried to lighten my palette. When he returned, he would say the same thing… After a while, not understanding, I would destroy the painting by covering it with black. Upon seeing what I had done, my master would say:“Ah! Well, there you go. Whenever you want, add some light.”

I understood that black serves the light: the darker a painting is, the more it can be illuminated.

Lionel PERBET
Fisherman at the sea - Nocturne
Oil on Canvas : 65x50 cm. Year : 2003

After a few years, I began reflecting on how to modernize my painting, on how to anchor the fruit of my work, inspired by the light of the 19th-century Romantics, into the 21st century.

I started from a simple observation:
What interests me in painting is the exploration and work with light. This is how I naturally turned to black to find this new light.

This is how I discovered the work of Pierre Soulages, who had already explored the notion of light within black in painting long before me. I decided to set aside what I knew and mastered in painting to develop my own technique, aiming to follow in Soulages’ footsteps by creating, like him, Outre-Noir. With this technique, I explored different depths of black as well as the texture of the material through a process of burnishing.

Lionel PERBET
Black Stained Glass - Tribute to Notre-Dame after the Fire
Black matter on wood : 73x85 cm. Year : 2019

My initial goal was to modernize my painting. Instead, the first Outre-Noir pieces had the appearance of ancient walls, seemingly from some temple of ancient Egypt. Faced with this surprising realization, I wasn’t about to fight it. Mektoub, my first attempts turned out to be modern paintings over 4000 years old!

Following the initial results, I wanted to repeat the experiment by developing a new technique, which led to a new painting. Finding it unsatisfactory, I destroyed it. However, the result was interesting; its raw, monolithic, and opaque surface inspired me. I decided to keep it as it was, thinking to myself: “It might not be picked up off the ground, but it is displayable!”

Lionel PERBET
Black Diamond — Natural Light
Black matter on wood : 38x46 cm. Year : 2019

At the time, I envisioned displaying these unusual black monochromes on black walls, illuminated by black light. This detail is very important for the rest of the story…

One must always keep their childlike spirit, especially in a creative process. It was this spirit that led me to acquire a black light, simply because it had the word “black” associated with light!

And it was by shining this black light on the destroyed monochrome that I discovered a passage filled with light, which I decided to explore. Thus, I stepped behind Alice’s mirror and accidentally discovered another dimension within the blacks.

Lionel PERBET
Black Diamond — Black Light
Black matter on wood : 38x46 cm. Year : 2019

It’s a bit like Christopher Columbus, thinking he had found a shortcut to the Indies while stepping foot on a new continent. Now, I needed to master this accident, this chemical reaction, this wild horse, this serendipity of black, born from a miscalculation in my devil’s kitchen. A gram more or less in my formulation, and the monochrome would have remained sealed in darkness, the doors would have stayed closed.

After several attempts based on this miscalculation, I rewrote the formula and managed to reopen the temple doors. Thus was born this Black Virgin, appearing ghostly, like a light illuminating the darkness.

Lionel PERBET
Black Virgin — Scenography
Black matter on wood : 38x46 cm. Year : 2019

Technically, this Black Virgin does not exist, as there is only one pigment: black.
From there, I departed from Soulages’ path to create my own way in painting, that of MANOIRS.

A new idea emerged: that of a mystical quest in the darkness to bring forth the light. This reminds me of the Swiss psychoanalyst C.G. Jung, who said about light: “To become luminous, it is not enough to merely turn towards it; on the contrary, it is by bringing it to where there is none!”

After finding the light in the darkness, I have now discovered color in the black.

Thus, with these two new facets and these two new ways of creating and perceiving painting, I began to revisit my early works.

Lionel PERBET
Fisherman at the sea — Scenography
Oil on papper : 46x31 cm. Year : 2022

This approach to painting is akin to space exploration or the exploration of the universe, always expanding on a technical level.

This chivalrous epic is an adventure à la Jules Verne: a journey behind the dark side of the Moon, which began over twenty years ago in painting. And when my painting resurfaced on the other side of the dark side, it was transformed, transmogrified, metamorphosed. They are no longer paintings, but MANOIRS©, cryptids living in the shadows of the art world’s spotlight.

I am proud to have succeeded in bringing back this light inherited from the 19th-century Romantics and integrating it into the 21st century. My MANOIRS© deliver a message of hope in these dark times:
“Even in the deepest darkness, it is possible to find the light.”
My MANOIRS© are the witnesses of this, hanging on the walls.

Pierre Soulages said about art: It is the discipline that deserves to devote one’s life to.I do not dedicate my life to art; I dedicate it to building a MANOIRS©.

Long live the MANOIRS©.