“The painting is either AST or PM,” Stéphane Dafflon explains. He gives his works very neutral titles, consisting of an acronym for the technique—such as AST for “acrylique sur toile” (“acrylic on canvas”), PM for “peinture murale” (“mural painting”) or SAI for “sculpture sur acier inoxydable” (“sculpture on stainless steel”)—followed by a number indicating the piece’s chronological position in the order of creation.

Meticulously applied in successive layers, Stéphane Dafflon’s painting asserts itself through visual dynamics and rhythms made up of vivid colours. Smooth textures, clean contours free of smudges, efficient compositions without accidents, solid colours, and geometry have found their meeting place in his acrylics.

While his early paintings played with logos, his compositions are now autonomous, disconnected from any reference outside of themselves, even if the arrangements of certain shapes (AST 403, AST 404) could evoke the centuries-old game of tangram and its infinitely adjustable pieces.

By contrast, the painting AST 363 seems to present a relief through the contraction of certain angles and therefore of certain lines, reminding us that painting has always sought to trick the eyes, plunging them into an illusionistic three-dimensionality.