(Eupen, Belgium, 1950)
Christian Silvain was born in Eupen (Belgium) on 6 March 1950. At the age of 14 he became an apprentice to an ornamental painter. In 1967 he moved to Brussels where he studied painting on his own, worked in the theatre, but spent most of his time composing poems and songs with which he won an important prize. It was in 1970 that Silvain’s true birth as a painter took place. He executed his first etchings and held his first exhibition, which immersed him entirely in the world of painting, as the reviews were excellent.
In 1972 he went to work in Paris, where he developed his surrealist period until 1979, in which a great influence of Dalí can be appreciated. In 1979 he decided to break with the past and during this period (1979-1983) he produced his “Hyperrealistic Façades”, where the walls chosen were always old walls, marked by time, which Silvain used to make a social critique. In 1981, fascinated by the possibilities of photography, he began to use it in his work.
In Silvain’s most recent works, the subject is practically reduced to the simple role of a bearer of ideas and forms. It could be said that he has gradually developed a style that could be described as abstract-figurative. This is influenced by the great interest awakened in him by psychiatry, showing a great interest in drawings of patients and in particular in works that reflect a maximum of authenticity and spontaneity. “The man who leaves a message behind him”. The sculptures of this period are invariably flat, use intense colours (reds, blues, blacks…), and use everyday elements in the composition.