It’s hard to understand Alain Bertrand’s vision and passion without considering the American myth. Such as he experienced daily, waving to passing GIs in their Jeeps from Evreux as a teenager, listening to their rock records and smoking their king-size cigarettes.

At the same time the Hollywood studios vaunted a triumphant America, gay, glamorous, crawling with huge shining cars and a glamour which contrasted so directly with a destroyed Europe, prisoner of it’s own devastated dreams. Alain Bertrand knows perfectly how to recapture that comfortable America full of strength and confidence that fills our childhood dreams.

The power of his canvases is his ability to entice us, hearts racing, into a paradise that, just for several moments, has not yet totally vanished.

Michel Guégan