‘Everything Beautiful Comes From and Speaks of God,’ Says French Artist| National Catholic Register
PARIS — Augustin Frison-Roche is a rising star in the French art world. Frison-Roche, who recently gained international recognition for his creation of a column-tabernacle and a painted cross for the crypt of the emblematic Chartres cathedral on the occasion of its 1,000th anniversary, is currently at the heart of an exhibition on the theme “Epiphanies” at the Collège Catholique des Bernardins in Paris.
This institution, the foundations of which date back to the time of St. Louis, is now a major venue for Christian cultural encounters in the French capital.
Running until Feb. 26, the exhibition offers a glimpse into Frison-Roche’s dreamlike world, with its lush wildlife landscapes and numerous references to the invisible world.
This artist, who is 37, has spent the last 15 years working on all kinds of creations at the crossroads between secular and sacred art, from painting to sculpture and liturgical furniture. For him, art and its universal scope is the perfect complement to conceptual theology.
Artistic Manifesto
Epiphany opens the soul to transcendence, according to the artist.
“I loved to develop this theme that has always inspired me,” Frison-Roche said in a Jan. 7 conversation with the Register. “It represents only some 20 lines in St. Matthew, but it was enriched by the Christian tradition over time, and it is no accident if it has inspired so many painters across history, a bit like the Apocalypse: These themes are appealing to painters, as they can produce beautiful images.”
In his view, the dimensions of freedom and poetry associated with Epiphany enabled the Christian holy day to permeate popular culture and appeal to both secular and religious audiences, captivated by the image of the Magi from the East and their processions, flanked by elephants, dromedaries and other exotic creatures.
“The Adoration of the Magi is almost an artistic manifesto to me, because I believe that art should always be an epiphany,” he said.
Over the course of the 19 paintings that make up the exhibition, the artist also develops his vision of the great “apparitions” that have marked sacred history and which he perceives as other forms of epiphany. This is why he chose the plural form for the title.
To enhance his works, four concerts of Baroque harpsichord music composed for the occasion, inspired by his painting L’Oiseau de Paradis (“The Bird of Paradise”), feature in the program.
Act of Service
For this artist brought up in the Catholic faith, he welcomes commissions from Christian institutions.
The famous Dominican community in Toulouse, in southern France, commissioned him in 2023 to create a new reliquary to house the skull of St. Thomas Aquinas for the seventh centenary of his canonization.
“I’m not a theologian, and I never read Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae, but I had the opportunity to ask the Dominican friars a lot of questions and understand much more about the Angelic Doctor’s spirit,” Frison-Roche said.
Although his education gave him a solid grasp of the fundamental teachings of the Church, he is also careful not to compromise his intuitive understanding of the great events of Christianity with an overly intellectual approach.
“While theology explains, dissects and analyzes, art shows, turns a concept into a compelling image; the theologian and the artist are not looking for the same thing; they actually complement each other,” he stated.
This approach came particularly to the fore when he created the triptych on the themes of the Apocalypse, the Baptism of Jesus and Pentecost for Saint-Malo Cathedral in Brittany.
“When I paint the Apocalypse, for example, I don’t provide any explanation,” he said. “I create an image that can be the starting point for a theological discourse.”
In the same way, he drew inspiration from the theology enshrined in the hundreds of representations of the Annunciation by the masters of painting who preceded him.
The trust placed in him by his commissioners and the Catholic faithful who have followed his work for years lends him a perfect balance of humility and confidence to cope with the pressure of large-scale projects.
“I see my work as an act of service, not as something I do for myself, and that’s what helps me get into the creative process,” he explained.
While he regularly prays for the Holy Spirit’s intervention before setting to work, he is careful not to attribute full authorship to him, at the risk of making him responsible for any personal failures.
“I’m always surprised by people who are always certain they are inspired by the Holy Spirit: If that were the case, ‘Holy Spirit’ would sometimes have quite a bad taste!” he joked, adding that he is always “bearing in mind that everything beautiful comes from and speaks of God.”
Dialoguing With the World
Frison-Roche’s wide range of influences and his ability to appeal to the widest possible audience has been a major asset in the Western art world, where being openly Christian is not always desirable.
From prehistoric art to Giotto, Fra Angelico and 19th-century Symbolists such as Odilon Redon and Gustave Moreau, as well as Gustav Klimt and Flemish painting, his guiding principle is to remain unrestricted in terms of inspiration, for he believes — in contrast to many contemporary artists — that summoning up the past is a powerful vector of creative genius.
This artistic freedom has also enabled him to make a name for himself in the secular world, notably through the design of the official poster for the 2024-2025 season of the Opéra du Capitole in Toulouse.
“When you step outside the box by not having attended the Beaux-Arts, by not being inserted in the right circles to begin with, it’s difficult to access certain large-scale projects,” he continued. “I had to show pugnacity and bank on the universal scope of my artistic message for doors to eventually open.”
Drawing on St. John Paul II’s “Letter to Artists,” in which the Pope emphasized that authentic art has the capacity to speak to everyone without distinction, the young painter makes a point of appealing to the general public, beyond the circles of sacred art lovers. He believes that what is authentically beautiful is universal.
“I recently received a comment from a nonbeliever on Instagram that really touched me, saying that he found my work on the Three Kings very beautiful and that it had made him want to dig deeper into this mystery,” Frison-Roche said. “This gives my work its full meaning and further demonstrates that art is the gateway that opens onto transcendence and the invisible world.”
