ALFREDO YACHE
from instant to eternity

Alfredo Yache, born in 1952, lives and creates in Anjou, in the heart of the nature that inspires and animates him. For more than thirty-five years, Yache has explored the image, navigating between photography and painting, oscillating between instant capture and inspiration matured over time.

 

Her slow, thoughtful approach is rooted in the mysteries of trees, those fascinating beings that are both powerful and light, rooted and aerial, embodying the paradox between strength and fragility, matter and emptiness. ‘The most important thing in drawing a tree is the air between the leaves’, said Matisse. Yache also immerses himself in the magic of botany, where each flower, each plant, reveals to his eyes an almost cosmic sensuality or strangeness. For him, nature cannot be summed up in the simple gaze of the lens or the frozen mise-en-scène of painting.

 

In 1990, he changed his relationship with photography, his preferred art form. When he scratched the surface of a Polaroid with a stylus, he transformed a simple photographic image into a unique work, in which the artist's hand imposed its vision, modifying the frozen representation. For several years, he devoted himself to this transformation, bending the instantaneity of the photograph to the contemplative slowness of the painter. Each work is concentrated in eight square centimetres, these small units then coming together to form larger compositions. Each element is an entity in its own right, but when assembled with others, it becomes part of a whole that has never been seen before.

 

Yache shows that what may seem insignificant - a shadow, a shade of sky, a spot of light - can become central. The image bursts into multiple facets that respond to each other and engage in dialogue. Like the Cubists and Impressionists, Yache reinvents the way we look at things: colours break up, lines are broken, and perspectives each play in their own space.

For ten years, he worked to break down the fleeting nature of photography to incorporate the dimension of time, inviting the eye to escape beyond the frame. This quest has now produced what he was looking for: fragmented compositions, the fruit of a long journey, which he has now decided to reveal.

 

His works begin with a photographic gesture, which he systematically alters before leaving behind in favour of the brush. The fragmented gaze then becomes holistic, the pictorial material becomes charged with humanity, and the form, emerging from the colour, incorporates the slowness of time. A photograph, however beautiful, can be captured in a few seconds; but you can spend hours in front of a Rembrandt: painting contains a living time.

 

In his compositions, each element is painted independently, while his fragmentations break down the whole. In both cases, the final work emerges naturally, existing thanks to the subtle interaction between its components, each playing its part in this visual symphony.

 

Career and milestones

Alfredo Yache's artistic career has been enriched over the years by several exhibitions, each marking a significant stage in the development of his work.

 

In 1992, he exhibited his altered Polaroids at the Banque de Neuflize, Schlumberger, Mallet in Paris, where he revealed his unique technique for transforming photographic images. Three years later, in 1995, he presented Visions du Sud at the Galerie du Conseil départemental du Var in Toulon, an exploration of the light and landscapes of southern France. In 1998, his exhibition Arborescences at the Abbaye de Longpont highlighted his fascination with nature, particularly trees and their organic forms.

 

The year 2000 marked a turning point with Ruissellements, a private exhibition in Chanzeaux, where Yache continued his work on natural elements, in particular water and its movement. In 2004, he presented Fragmentations at the Atelier de Tanneron, deepening his research into the decomposition of the image and exploring new perspectives.

 

In 2006, he exhibited Chemins vers Rome at a private show in the Italian capital, continuing his artistic dialogue with nature and history. Then in 2010, he returned to France with Botanica at the Galerie de la Bastide des Jourdans, in the Luberon, where he continued to explore botanical mysteries. Three years later, in 2013, he took the same series to California, to the Smart Gallery in Sunnyvale, bringing his view of nature to an international audience.

 

Back in Paris in 2014, Yache exhibited Errances at the Ateliers Froidevaux, a more introspective series that evokes personal journeys and questions about time and space. The following year, in 2015, he unveiled Fragments d'arbres at a private exhibition in Fez, Morocco, showing a new facet of his work on plant forms.

 

In 2018, he presented Beyond Forest at the Château l'Hermitage in France, an exhibition in which he took his reflection on forests, veritable natural cathedrals, even further. Finally, in 2022, with Cathédrales, exhibited at Mouliherne, he reaffirmed his deep connection with nature and the spirituality it embodies.