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Erik Bersou

"A life, it is a continuation of intentions, the preparation and assertion of a movement. "

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Notes of biography

Erik Bersou was born in 1953 in Abidjan (Ivory Coast). Erik Bersou is at first a paintor until he meets with a Master-Etcher who teaches him his know-how and introduces him to a new way of expression: etching. He will make his artistic studies at the School of the Decorative Arts in Paris - etching department, where he graduates in 1978.
The young artist becomes an etching and drawing professor then opens a screenprint workshop in Alençon in 1988. In 1990, he trains as a typograph. Erik Bersou now works from over 20 years as an etcher, painter, typograph, illustrator and book publisher (Andrée Chedid, André Malartre, Louis Chedid, Jean-Pierre Crespel, etc...).
His interest for etching and his mastering of a major art allow him to reflect with intensity his emotions. Erik Bersou is influenced by passed emotional hurts readable in his etchings. His black shaded tones and his pure ocre colors offer sharp contrasts to his works with such intensity that it calls us for meditation. Erik Bersou builds his works around the etching process. His technics try to overcome the constraints of two dimensional supports, to work in depth in order to give effects to the material. To do so, he scratches the material or add to it pigments gathered from marble dust.
Erik Bersou's work is ambitious and without concession to question spectators. It is meant to tell the  untold, to go through the looking glass beyond realistic representations, to express another reality, the one that constitute our very own emotions. Between material and spirit, between taken and free space, Bersou writes down graffitis together with shade and light plays. Recently, the artist is trying another support : glass, his creations reveal a dramatic intensity where technic is entangled with spontaneity and movements.
In 2003, Eric Bersou settles down in the Manche, in Cérences, sharing his time between his art and local life. There, he sets up the Gravos Press, a small publishing house whose goal is to promote encounters between authors and visual artists around poetry. Gravos Press directed by Erik Bersou publishes poems and books.
For over 25 years now, Erik Bersou has participated to numerous exhibitions in France and abroad (Netherlands, Spain – French Institute in Sevilla -, Germany, Luxembourg, United-States, Israël, …). He is present at the major european etching events : SAGA Paris, Etching Fair in Frankfort, Stockholm, Cracovy, Linéart of Gand. His works are in private and public collections (Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Canada, France, FRAC of Basse-Normandy, FDAC of the Orne).

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
Non réalisé à ce jour. All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « Erik Bersou », Michel Onfray, cat. d'exposition, Estivales en Normandie, 1994
  • « Une poésie de l'absence », N. Lecomte, Journal du Luxembourg, 1998
  • « Je me souviens », cat. d'exposit., Carrefour des Arts, La Chapelle Urée, 2004
  • « Existences », cat. d'exposition, Regnéville-sur-Mer en 2006
To read from the artist :
  • « Erik Bersou », film, Conseil Général de la Manche, 2005
Website :
No website dedicated to the artist.

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Art movements

+ ARTISTS OF TODAY / XXth century /
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover