A Look Into: Frédéric Dumoulin

For this first edition of A Look Into, Frédéric Dumoulin responded to a series of questions using a disposable camera. Rather than documenting the exhibition directly, his images trace the conditions that surround his practice: light, landscape, recurring forms, and quiet moments of observation. Together, the photographs and short reflections offer a closer view of the rhythms, references, and sensitivities that shape Hêmérê.

Language plays a central role in Dumoulin’s work. Each painting begins with a word—chosen not for its literal meaning, but for its resonance, rhythm, and poetic potential. These words accompany a long process of repetition and revision, often involving hundreds of sketches before a composition is resolved.

Hêmérê, his first exhibition in Madrid, brings together the core elements of his practice. Drawing from ancient texts such as The Iliad and The Odyssey, Dumoulin explores how language can contain memory, landscape, and emotion within a single term. His careful observation of the natural world mirrors this approach, where attention becomes a way of thinking.

Through A Look Into, we invite you to encounter the Frédéric Dumoulin through process, context, and the quieter moments that inform his work, revealed through photographs accompanied by his own brief reflections.

1. Where does a painting begin for you?

*This photo shows the sunrise as seen from my studio. I sometimes look forward to it so I can start working. I don’t like working with artificial light, and the nights are long in winter.*

2. What landscape—real or imagined—echoes most strongly in this new series?

*Photos in my studio of Mycenae, one of the places that has most marked me during my travels and that I love to revisit.*

3. Capture the color or atmosphere that defines Hêmérê without showing any paintings.

*Photos taken in the fading winter light. The paintings in Hêmérê carry more of a late-summer or early-autumn light, but I recognize myself in this low, white light.*

4. Show us a line, shape, or contour you often return to.

*Motifs and textures that constantly recur.*

5. Show us a fragment of your process that usually remains unseen.

*Precious color notations on my motifs*.

6. Take a photo of a place that brings you peace.

*Image of the back garden. I sometimes go there to enjoy the calm and observe nature.*

7. Show us an object, texture, or fragment that reveals your fascination with ancient civilizations.

An artifact I haven’t been able to clearly identify. Whether it’s Celtic, Gallo-Roman, or from the Early Middle Ages, this object could well be over a thousand years old. It burns in my fingers and in my eyes; I probe the abyss that separates us from its creator.

For more on Frédéric Dumoulin’s work, we invite you to continue exploring here.