Philippe
Renault
Moldmaking and casting professor
Silicone, plaster, wax, resin… whatever the material, its plasticity, its absorption of light, its porosity, its density and its scale, Philippe Renault knows the material subtleties that will allow it to be molded. Introduced to molding by his father, he worked at the Villenauxe-la-Grande porcelain factory the following year.
At the Beaux-Arts de Paris, it was Robert Nogues who passed on the secrets of his practice to him in 1983. He inaugurated his own studio in 1987 and then began a career as a restorer but also as a creator in the field of molding. It responds in particular to orders from demanding sponsors such as Historic Monuments and National Heritage, among others: the National Assembly, the cathedrals of Reims or Amiens, the Banque de France, the Grand Palais, the Hôtel Plaza Athénée, the restaurant l'Ambroisie, the Bourdelle or Maillol museums, the Dina Vierny Foundation... He also works with contemporary artists such as Anne and Patrick Poirier, Etienne Martin, Robert Couturier... Philippe Renault collectively directs the material/space laboratory with Fabrice Vannier and Götz Arndt.
Götz
Arndt
Stonecutting-woodcutting
A stonemason trained in Bavaria, Götz Arndt graduated from Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1992 and collectively directs the material/space laboratory with Fabrice Vannier and Philippe Renault. Sculptor, his mineral, minimalist and poetic works are mostly made in situ. At the heart of public or private space, they play with the present architecture, even if it means creating interesting discrepancies. Resistance to time is therefore one of Götz Arndt's concerns, in addition to the relationship between volume and space.
Concrete, shells, granite, steel… the materials used are as massive as they appear fragile and light in sculptures that defy weightlessness. His workshop explores materials, their issues and their shaping, taking into account space, lines of force, the density of materials and multiple possible variations in shapes. He has carried out public commissions in Germany, Luxembourg and France and exhibits in Europe and Asia. His works are present in private and public collections.
Pascale
Accoyer
Painting techniques
Pascale Accoyer is a curator and restorer of painted works, specializing in modern and contemporary art. Its intervention at the School takes place through regular classes in the workshop and one-off individualized meetings with students to answer specific questions.
She works for public institutions such as the Center Pompidou, the CNAP, the Musée national Picasso-Paris and the Center Pompidou-Metz. At the same time, she is a lecturer in conservation-restoration of contemporary art in the Master Pro “Contemporary art and its exhibition” at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle.
Photo credit: © Hugo Aymar
Valérie
Sonnier
Morphology
Born in 1967, Valérie Sonnier graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1993.
In 2003, she was appointed professor of drawing and morphology.
Using a variety of media - drawing, painting, photography and super8 film - Valérie Sonnier unfolds a universe exploring the links between intimate memories and the collective memory of childhood, notions of presence and absence, and ghostly apparitions. A series of her photographs at the Galerie Huguier is part of the school's photographic collection. His solo exhibition Tout dit dans l'infini quelque chose à quelqu'un, evoking Victor Hugo's links with spiritualism, was held in the writer's house in Paris and was part of the contemporary art programme for Nuit Blanche 2022.
A monograph was recently published in the Gratitudes collection by Éditions des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She is represented by the Nadja Vilenne gallery in Belgium, and the Dilecta gallery devoted a solo exhibition to her in 2023.
She was awarded the Prix Château Kirwan at the BAD+ fair in Bordeaux in 2024.
Daniel
Schlier
Drawing
Daniel Schlier is a graduate of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg (Sarkis workshop).
Professor of painting at HEAR Strasbourg and HEAD Geneva, he was then appointed to the Beaux-Arts in Paris. Both a painter, draftsman and engraver, Daniel Schlier attempts to contain the complexity of the world in his painting. Multiplying supports – canvas, marble, glass, wood – his works are all possibilities for generating a new world.
The figures, landscapes and various grotesques are like organisms, in permanent debate with the very elements that constitute them. He has notably exhibited at the Grand Palais (Paris, 2006), at the MAMC in Strasbourg (2007) and at the Beijing International Art Biennale (2009).
Photo credit: © Hugo Aymar
Jack
McNiven
Morphology
Through the technique of drawing, painting, installations and land art, Jack McNiven explores forms in movement. He uses morphology to dissect his subjects – Man, animals, nature – reducing them to their lines, their folds, their wrinkles. Made with chalk on a blackboard, his drawings appear, disappear and rediscover the ephemeral nature of all movement. In the form of installations, his drawings temporarily inhabit marine, urban and rural landscapes and bear witness to the interactions between artistic creation and nature.
Among its exhibitions in 2022: Teachers also scribble, Beaux-Arts de Paris; Forney Library – Nuit Blanche and Mullion Cove, Cornwall.
Photo credit: © Hugo Aymar
Frédérique
Loutz
Drawing
Frédérique Loutz manipulates, blurs and abruptly shapes forms.
Dictated by his drawing, they are most often hybrid. The artist mixes techniques not to associate them or confuse them but so that the contrast distinguishes them. She constantly tries to renew what she traces and succeeds precisely without succeeding. The vocabulary that she constantly uses, repeats and interprets again takes us into an often fantastic and phantasmagorical universe where friendly monsters and distorted familiar characters coexist.
Photo credit: © Hugo Aymar
Clara
Schulmann
Film studies
Clara Schulmann has a doctorate in film studies and, in addition to teaching at art schools, she also writes criticism. She coordinates publishing projects such as Jeux sérieux. Cinéma et art contemporain transforment l'essai (HEAD/Mamco, 2015), Palmanova (Form(e)s, 2016), Laura Mulvey, Au-delà du plaisir visuel. Feminism, enigmas, cinephilia (Mimesis, 2017). Her thesis was published by Presses du réel (Les Chercheurs d'or. Films d'artistes, Histoires de l'art, 2014).
Her latest publication is Zizanies (Paraguay Press, 2020) - a first-person narrative dedicated to women's voices.
Photo: Pauline Seckel
Clélia
Zernik
Art philosophy
A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure with an agrégation and a doctorate in aesthetics, Clélia Zernik is a professor of philosophy of art at the Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Her early research focused on the relationship between art and science, as developed by art psychologists and phenomenologists (cf. Perception-cinéma, Vrin, Paris, 2012; L'œil et l'objectif, Vrin, 2014). Her research is now focused on cinema (Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, Yellow Now, Paris, 2013, L'attrait du café, Yellow Now, Paris, 2017, L'attrait du fantôme, Yellow Now, Paris, 2019) and contemporary Japanese art, thanks to study periods at Waseda University and Tokyo University. She works on the question of the doubling of images (Japanese surfaces and depths) and regularly contributes to journals such as Critique d'art and Art Press.
Photo credit: © Hugo Aymar
Yann
Rocher
Scenography and Architecture
An architect who is also a graduate of the CNSMDP and the EHESS, Yann Rocher devoted himself to the construction of stage venues between 1998 and 2008. From 2002 to 2011, he directed the Théâtre électronique collective and created a series of sound installations in France and abroad.
He has been teaching at Paris-Malaquais since 2005, and since 2019 has been co-directing "L'entour", a seminar on exhibition scenography, with Thierry Leviez. In 2012 he was appointed curator of the Saline Royale d'Arc-et-Senans, culminating in the 2013 exhibition Théâtres en utopie.
From 2015 to 2018 he curated the Globes exhibition at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine. His latest exhibition, Moi cristal, was held at the Centre d'art contemporain de Lacoux in summer 2022.
Photo credit: © Bruno Weiss
