Retarder l’instant de l’aube presents a striking interplay between abstraction and figuration, structured across a carefully balanced composition. Painted on a Japanese shikishi board, the work combines acrylic, collage, and textured gestures, demonstrating the artist’s ongoing investigation into the limits of representation.
The scene depicts a group of human figures facing a horizon, evoking a coastal elevated landscape. The positioning of the characters and their ambiguous outlines create a sense of suspended time, just before something begins—matching the painting’s title, Delaying the Instant of Dawn. This moment is neither narrative nor symbolic; it is an atmosphere rendered in layers of color and suggestion.
Christian Halna du Fretay uses the shikishi board not just as a support, but as an active participant in the work’s structure. The golden edge subtly reinforces the warm tones and softens the contrasts between light and shadow, while the board’s compact format anchors the painting in intimacy and restraint.
What distinguishes this composition is the tension between surface and depth. The background unfolds in fractured planes of green, blue, and ochre, built with broad strokes and fine textures. These gestural overlays create a visual rhythm that evokes movement without clearly defining space. The figures—partially silhouetted, sometimes cut by collage—do not inhabit the scene in a traditional sense; they emerge from it. This approach resists narrative clarity in favor of emotional evocation.
In this work, Christian Halna du Fretay maintains his signature method of constructing images from the confrontation of forms, colors, and materiality. He does not impose meaning but invites viewers to slow down, observe, and enter the interval between stillness and movement.
“Retarder l’instant de l’aube” is part of the Contemporary Shikishi Art Project initiated by Art San Gallery, a series that explores how traditional formats like shikishi can serve as sites for contemporary expression.
Retarder l’instant de l’aube – Acrylic on Shikishi by Christian Halna du Fretay
Original one-of-a-kind artwork by Christian Halna du Fretay.
Collage, acrylique, pencil on a traditional Shikishi made in Kyoto - Japanese paper mounted on a cardoard with a golden border of metallic paper.
Size : 24cm x 27cm (9.4 x 10.6 inches)
Signed "Du Fretay".
