Musée GRATALOUP · Virtual Exhibitions · 2026
Antoine POUPEL
Photographer
Exhibition Between Worlds presented at the Musée GRATALOUP from April 4 to November 11, 2026
Discover Antoine POUPEL
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Photo Jean-Michel Fickinger
Antoine POUPEL was born in 1956 in Le Havre, France, and lives and works in Paris. He graduated from the École nationale supérieure d’expression plastique in 1982. Two years later, he became an artist-in-residence at the French Academy in Rome, based at the Villa Medici. He subsequently received a research and creative grant for Mexico and Brazil, followed by training in new imaging technologies.
In 1992, he received support from the Centre national des arts plastiques for his project Portraits of Personalities. Throughout his career, his work has been exhibited in numerous prestigious photography institutions in France, across Europe, Japan, Russia, and the United States. His photographs are held in major public collections, including the Fonds national d’art contemporain, the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Maison européenne de la photographie in Paris, as well as museums in Tokyo and Sydney.
MONOTYPES
His approach is rooted in a profound questioning of photography itself. POUPEL refers to the etymology of the word photography, meaning “writing with light.” This idea guides his artistic practice. He seeks to deconstruct the traditionally mechanical nature of photography and reintroduce the artist’s hand into the process. Light becomes a painterly medium, treated as a material in its own right.
Through their singularity and distinctive treatments, the monotypes he creates do more than simply record an image. They become unique works of art, shaped by chemistry and gesture.
MONOTYPE, ATOTONILCO, MEXICO, 1988
Dripping technique using photographic chemicals, reminiscent of the work of painter Jackson Pollock.
Unique work, 127 × 200 cm, collection of FRAC Haute-Normandie.
PORTRAIT OF ARMAN, NEW YORK, 2003
In his New York studio, digital montage created from a black-and-white negative.
PORTRAITS
Portraiture occupies a central place in his work. POUPEL creates images in collaboration with those he photographs, through a shared creative process. In Portraits of Personalities, each person chooses the element with which their image will be combined. This co-creation establishes a relationship between the subject and a world beyond them. The image thus becomes a space for dialogue, where presence and distance coexist.
TRANSFORMATION
The exploration of movement plays a major role in POUPEL’s work. Through his photography of dance and performance, he seeks to capture the traces of gesture and the transformation of the body. Blur, double images, and partial erasure are integral to this exploration. Photography becomes a space for sensory experience.
CRAZY HORSE, 1996/2023
ANIMALS
Antoine POUPEL’s work is also shaped by close artistic collaborations. His long-standing collaboration with the Zingaro equestrian theatre company has taken him around the world with the troupe. It has given rise to images exploring the relationship between humans, animals, and movement.
ZINGARO, EQUESTRIAN OPERA
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ZINGARO, ECLIPSE, 1997
Photomontage featuring Bartabas on horseback and an image of the moon
Monotype based on the performance titled Éclipse
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Eclipse
At first glance, we think we know what we are seeing. A horse. A rider. And the moon, immense, behind them.
Everything seems motionless. The horse does not walk. The rider stands upright. Their profiles, like shadow puppets, are sharp, as if cut from paper.
The rider’s conical headdress brings to mind a samurai, a ritual dancer from Japanese theatre, or even a shaman from archaic times. The horse is regal. Their appearance against the silent screen of the moon gives off a feeling of power. Then something else emerges: a sense of solemnity, serious and slightly mysterious.
It is a man-horse, speckled with lunar craters, visible in transparency across its silhouette. A double being, floating without ground or horizon in the substance of the moon. A dream, perhaps. Or an apparition. And we remain there, without understanding, fascinated, watching.