Guillaume Bresson

Guillaume Bresson’s (b. 1982, Toulouse) neo-classically inspired pictures depict scenes of urban violence, riots, and brawls in underground carparks. All these images, seen and re-seen – but rarely experienced – are of regularly highly mediatised social problems. Guillaume Bresson relies on a classical pictorial technique and a theatrical composition inherited from Poussin, both of which lend his works the character of contemporary history paintings. The presentation, and the quite special atmosphere created by dramatic lighting, which recalls Caravaggio, put reality at a certain remove, while the subjects deal with things topical.