This collection of “Cœurs” (“Hearts”) incorporates two key points of Philippe Pastor’s approach: recourse to a symbolic, direct and universal iconography, and the phenomenological relationship with the material. The artist plays with these recognisable forms, snatched from the flow of popular images, which he submerges with brightly-coloured gestural abstractions. Often monumental in size, these canvases are composed of several layers of paint and worked with a blowtorch: the surface of the painting is scorched. (…) Above all, this ‘cry from the heart’ is a warning signal: when the artist burns a heart, he exposes a crime and gives his revolt the most dramatic and violent countenance that can be expressed. Hence, Philippe Pastor’s work is characterised by both the vitality of an interrogation of man and nature, and the beauty of his forms and materials.
Alexandra Marini, Extract from the book « PASTOR », 2017
