Born August 16, 1951, in Pontarlier.
From tradition of the trompe-l'oeil, one theme that is constantly being reinterpreted is the still-life. When one would think that nothing new could ve invented on the subject, some painters still surprise us! This is the case of Fred Minard, a former antique dealer, in love with old books, glassworks and precious porcelains, who establishes a modern atmosphere by propeling these old objects, floating in an almost monochrome space.
For all that, the work does not lack modernism, combining traces of memory to a very contemporary layout. In fact, the Artist arranges old letters, manuscripts of notarial deeds and old papers from the XVIII and XIX centuries, that he covers with thin paint, while playing with the upstrokes and downstrokes of his calligraphy. The play of transparencies, in the style of a watercolor painter, multiplies evanescences while preserving the geometry of the pages. This background full of originality is in retreat in comparison to the objects who seem to float in the foreground.
Fred Minard manages to play with perspective in order to create an atypical style of work, orchestrated by dominant hues of blues and browns. For all that, a few highlights of oil allow him to
stigmatize the surrounding softness of his compositions that do not answer to any structural rules but those imposed by its creator. On top of it, the mysteries of this handwritting allow us all suppositions in regard to the personality of this poet. Isn't graphology a science! Half-way between realism and informality, this work transcends the strict classicism of the still-life to offer another vision, full of personality, astride times and incredibly seducing!