In my career as an art critic, I enjoy discovering surprising people. This sometimes happens, and Claude Troxler is one of these creators who often leaves me flabbergasted and admiring.

This was the case when, about twenty years ago, I saw the work of this beginner who was a firm follower of the movement founded by Lionel Ouine and Jean Quéméré. There was for that matter a great deal of affinity within the group, since Claude Troxler resolutely broke away from the traditional figurative and impressionist styles.

Indeed, there is more to Troxler than meets the eye: we are dealing with a pleasant man who is kind and smiley and has a warm sparkle in his eye. But the painter is anxious, feverish, and totally driven by his devotion to research and to all that is daring and unprecedented.

Both energetic and passionate, and yet also attentive, Claude Troxler is a worthy representative of the adventurous painter. Eager for ideas, which he contemplates and develops to suit his style, he even makes tragedy glisten in so much as he remains faithful to his rhythmic shapes, his harmonious effects of transparency, and his enamel colours so fluidly applied. This duality of his can also be seen in his naturally simple use of colours, thanks to his startling figurative style made of movement and light. What he does is daring and original, and the creator's seeming torture transforms into poetry of movement and life.

André RUELLAN,art critic