Attracted by the atmosphere of the circus, the colours, the characteristic odours, the lights, the Geneva artist Isabelle Arn, immerses herself with passion into this universe full of mysteries and magic, uniting so different artists like athletes, flying trapezists, clowns, funambulists, musicians, tamers, exhibitors of wild beasts, and many others, in an astounding dynamic.
The big tops, the arena, the spectators, the masks, the beasts, lions, tigers, elephants, constitute the essential of the part of the work for which the artist uses gouache and sticks of grease-paint on paper.
Casting a sharp and observing eye, without disguise, but full of emotion on the human beings and the actors she encounters, Isabelle Arn is submitting to one’s eye an engaging reality, which can be verified namely in the series of the masks. In the form of expressionist portraits, faces circled with black, drawn with affirmation, she plays vehemently the reds, the blacks, the fire and the nothingness. Some of them, with a sharp or smooth look, seem to fix a point in the far distance, in the infinite. A beautiful portrait of a women, for example, pulling a long pearly coloured face, underlined by a black hair, eyes similarly black, shows a long, fine, nose, which red-marks run over the cheeks, the eyelids and the mouth in an expressionist way. Another portrait, of a white clown, with a low forehead, has on the contrary a round face, slits of eyes, a large open blue mouth, crossing most part of the face. Underneath, one can guess clown cloths. Many masks and portraits, in as many expressions, show all the extravagances and the exuberances of colours.

In margin of the circus, the artist realizes an astonishing series, imprinted with the same expressionist way of working, in connection with women and the wearing of shoes. Totally original, this ensemble of works is putting in evidence the drawing talents of the artist, who multiplies the positions of well shod feet, in various angles of view, with legs side to side, crossed, or set apart.

Geneva, being the 2010 international capital of circus, - with big tops all over the city, bringing a great concentration of artists from all over the world -, an exhibition on the theme of the circus was a rendezvous that should not be missed !

Isabelle Arn lives and works in Geneva. Graduated in history (1992), she consecrated her time, since then, to oil painting, gouache and sticks of grease-paint. A monography : Isabelle Arn, les Huiles, Chouette Edition, Geneva, illustrates her artistic developments.


Dr.Danielle Junod-Sugnaux

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	Isabelle Arn