Almost anything can trigger creativity in an already gifted person. For example, take the case of Bernard Pras. When this French painter, photographer, and sculptor, found out from a chemist that cadmium red, available in tubes and used by artists, is the same that’s used to tint plastic basins, his creative juices started to flow. He painted the floor red and placed the red basin on it and lo! he came up with a fascinating relationship between them. This discovery led him to establish his unique brand of art.
Pras has acquired an uncanny gift of making easily recognizable art with everyday objects. He piles up what may seem like junk to others to create the likes of celebrities and renowned personalities, such as Albert Einstein, Bob Marley, Che Guevarra, Jack Nicholson, Mao Zedong, Uncle Sam, and many more. In this, he has been inspired by renowned artists, such as Salvador Dali, Edvard Munch, Guiseppe Arcimboldo, and Hiroshige, the Japanese woodcut artist.
What he does is to thoughtfully place a diverse collection of objects, such as boxes, packs, toys, plastic items, musical instruments, and other household stuff, in such a way as to create an image. However, the catch is the artwork needs to be seen only from a particular angle or through a particular device to make sense. With this unique form of art, he has been delighting art lovers for the last 20 years.
It’s to the credit of this exceptionally talented artist how he mixes colors and objects to create his image. Christian-Louis Eclimont, the famous French historian has this to say about Pras on artsper.com, “An athlete to the optical effect, Pras moves between the infinitely composite and the infinitely composed, using his eye as a camera that captures the patterns, while they’re being projected.”
Pras graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse, France. However, having discovered his inclination towards anamorphic art, he gave up painting to devote himself to it. Once he posted his creations on social media platforms, they immediately attracted attention. His incredible works continue to delight the viewers.
Bernard Pras