Universal duality of day and night
I love the power of black and white. Shade and light. Yin and Yang. One is profound, unclassifiable, eternal. The other is subtle, ethereal, timeless. They symbolise antitheses and complementarity. Choosing black and white means getting straight to the point without an excess of tonalities. The black and white make ‘Lipstick’ even more graphic and its red lipstick—more magnetic – Marc Ferrero
Meeting Marc Ferrero
Have you ever felt compelled to do something or meet someone without an explanation or reason?
That’s what happened to me when I decided to ask to interview Artist and painter Marc Ferrero, Ambassador to Hublot. Once again I’m happy to say that my intuition was on point.
From the moment, we connected on Skype, the conversation just flew by and the interaction flowed seamlessly from French to English. It felt comfortable and familiar. Marc Ferrero is as real as it gets – he’s confident, easy going, fun and very French!
It didn’t hurt to know that he appreciated my style and was impressed by my questions – great Ego booster!
Who are you Marc?
Do you think one is born with creative abilities or can creativity be learned?
The roots of being creative come from an open mind. If in you’re kept in a box by your family or your environment, then it will be very difficult to be creative. Creativity can’t appear on Demand just because now you feel like being creative. It’s a state of mind. In fact, you need to work with people who help you have an open mind. To be creative is to be able to create a fusion between different kinds of work. It’s not something you can learn in school.
Growing up my dad had absolutely zero artistic opinion or ability! So in some way it was good because I didn’t get the wrong advice or artistic education! My mom was a fashion designer for women. I grew up with a lot of different fashion magazines.
I had to find my references by myself and had no limits! I was able to mix everything I liked together – comic books, theatre, old TV series from the 60s, Art! That was the best artistic education I could have asked for.
I don’t think you can learn to be creative, but if you learn to think and do things outside the box, you can become creative.
It all comes from the heart. It’s a feeling and the heart is the Engine!
If you try to be creative in a commercial way, it’s the end! It’s impossible to be creative then – big mistake and problem in the world of contemporary art.
What do you think is a barrier to success?
I think nothing is good and nothing is bad.
Let’s take selfishness as an example. Selfishness can be very interesting for an artist who decides to follow a path that only he/she believes in. Having said that, not welcoming advice can be a mistake too. So it’s not about what is right or wrong but more a question of finding the right balance. To me the barrier is just the lack of balance.
When I was younger there were times I followed my own instinct and ideas while being open to others’ points of view. There are artists who don’t care at all about what others think and that I believe could turn out to be detrimental for their career.
What do You struggle with the most?
The hardest thing in our society is to be true to yourself when it means being different from the norm. You have to fight against everything and everyone to find your own way and that’s what most artists struggle with.
My fight began when I decided to create a new artistic movement by mixing what I like from comic books, paintings, literature, movies and create something different and original. No one believed in my idea because they didn’t believe comics (stupid art) could be mixed with paintings (known to be an intellectual art). I had to fight against those intellectuals to stay true to myself.
Today the fight is different – galleries tell artists what art should look like and sell to please the public. I tell them to “Fuck off!”. I tried to please the public all my life and I don’t do that anymore! Now I can share my work because people are ready for this kind of art.
The fight changes all the time!
How did you manage to overcome the fights and stay true to you?
You have to constantly be ready to fight – always be on the defensive.
As a young person, the fight is easier to accept because no one believes in you so the loss is minimal. Then it becomes more tricky because the stakes are higher and the fights are inconspicuous (intellectual).
I had to fight with my father all the time growing up! I was trained very early – best education ever! I had to combat my father, my everything, so anyone else after that was a piece of cake! Like any parent he wanted his son to conform to society’s rules and not be different. He certainly equipped me for my future!
Now you can come at me with any type of argument and I’m ready!
Were you always that confident?
I have confidence in my work, in my ability to defend my ideas and set my boundaries. I’m very cautious with people, especially in the world of Art. When you are a successful contemporary artist the value of your work is constantly being discussed, which is really stupid because the real value of your Art is the power of your imagination and not the price of your art.
What advice will you give the younger you or young artists?
When you are in your own studio with your own creation, you express your feelings, your sensibility, what you are – something really deep. But outside your studio, it’s War! A war because you have to spend your time convincing people about what is interesting and deep.
But when faced with the public, one has to know how to balance the inner world and the real world. I personally get bored when I’m with people who always need to express their emotions. I want to have fun too! I tell artists to be fun sometimes – I want to experience something else than what I have all day long.
The best advice is:
Are you ready to fight because it’s a big fight to be an Artist and the journey to the top can be painful and challenging.
Have you ever failed? What did you learn from it?
I fail everyday!!! I want to do 15 paintings a day – to do one you need several days, sometimes a week, so I fail everyday! It’s terrible!
“You Never Fail! You learn or you Win” – Winston Churchill
My wife and I when we fail (because we work together), we treat ourselves to a great dinner to celebrate. Each fail is celebrated!
Me: Since you fail everyday, do you go out every night? And how have you been able to manage with the lockdown?
We drink Champagne!
You must celebrate your failures because you always learn something.
What is one leadership lesson you’ve learned in your career?
The thing that brings you to the top will be the thing you’ll have to fight for when you reach the top! To create something new you have to break the rules, to break the rules you must not respect the rules, but when you’re at the top you have to create new rules! You have to justify being on top and the way to do that is by creating new rules!
So what you fought against all your life is what you have to work with when you succeed!
Be mindful that reaching the top is very different than being on top! The game is very different.
Picasso had an interesting point. He believed that you always need rules —and I would add to either follow or to break! But without rules it would be impossible to do anything. I was born to break the rules and my art is how I have chosen to break them!
What is the best and worst decision you’ve ever made?
The best decision was to open my own gallery. Many artists just wait for a Messenian to come and save them! In which world can we find these people? Definitely not in my world.
At the beginning of my career I lost all my money showing my work in New York! I went there with all my dreams but they sure kicked my ass to reality.
The experience opened my eyes and made my next steps very clear to me. The moment I came back from NY I opened my own gallery to face the public. I need my public. I don’t understand why a young artist would want to exhibit in a museum without ever facing its audience. Huge mistake! Who cares about you being in a museum? Nobody!
When I opened my gallery, I met so many interesting people from everywhere. Very small space, nothing sophisticated but I love it!
The worst decision as we said before – you never fail, you only learn.
I can’t think of anything. Making a bad decision can be very detrimental to a painter! So no bad decisions!
Being a Painter is probably one of the most difficult artistic jobs out there because once you finish your painting and sell it, you have no more rights on it. You just have to move on and create a new one. The contemporary art world is a very tough one.
What do you want more of in your life? And Less?
The one thing I want the most is to change the image of a Painter. I’ve never found a fucking interesting book about being a Painter! There’s no one out there who has a way to express contemporary things like Miles Davis, Robert Redford were able to in interviews. It’s all very boring!
Me: Why don’t you be the first one then? Start the movement!
I started doing it with Live performances where I do a painting in 20 minutes to challenge time and be able to create a piece of art with brushes facing the crowd. Let’s say that it’s a good beginning! I want to do that on a big stage with fancy clothes, bring an audience member on stage and ask them to paint something to take their idea and create something with it.
It’s difficult to be a Painter but it’s a free world and that’s amazing. In your studio, you’re free to do anything you want to do – you can create an entire world without having to follow any rules.
I want to connect people with painters.
Today Painting is all about status and intellectual conversations, but I think it’s Bullshit! It has to be FUN! And just because it’s fun it doesn’t mean it isn’t intellectual or interesting.
I want to change the image of Painters! And I want less commercial opinions!
It’s easier to speak about money than it is to talk about imagination. You discuss money when you have mo imagination.
Let’s talk about Hublot.
I feel very lucky! I don’t know how it happened but it did and I feel great!
The Hublot team is fantastic and they’re more creative than most artists.
Second artistic collaboration with Hublot
For its second artistic collaboration with the master of Storytelling Art, Hublot invites ‘Lipstick’, Marc Ferrero’s most emblematic work, back onto the dial of its Big Bang One Click 39mm. In white or black, symbolising inseparable complementarity, it illustrates the universal duality of day and night. An essential white that is subtle/minimalist, seductive without being a seducer. A deep black that is audacious and magnetic. Two watches to remind us that the day without the night is not a day, and that the night without the day is not a night.
As an artist used to working with big spaces, canvas, how was it to work with such a small space? Did the spacial restriction help with thinking more outside the box?
The restriction of space means that you have to summarise your ideas. When you work on a big canvas, you can adjust it to express yourself in a different way.
On a small scale like the dial, it definitely becomes more challenging and interesting.
But you know, the Hublot creative department is used to working this way and they are amazing at bouncing back and sharing ideas. It was a real team effort.
It wasn’t just me with my big Ego! We were able to respect the idea of the Lipstick painting with the expression of a 21st century woman.
The watch speaks for itself!
How long did it take you to create the Lipstick painting?
This painting is my signature painting. You can’t be a serious painter if you don’t have a signature painting.
For Van Gogh it was the Sunflowers, for Cézanne the Sainte Victoire mountain, for Warhol Marilyn Monroe and for Picasso Les Demoiselles D’Avignon.
The Lipstick took me 10 years to finalise – original oil painting.
I hadn’t planned it – it just came to me one day. Everyone liked it. Elegant, modern.
Hublot loved it and wanted to meet me. We met for 20 minutes and 5 hours later I was singing the contract!
Who ever said it requires 95% of work and 5% of talent? Stupid!! It takes, in the beginning, 95% talent and 5% work and after, things change and you have to work more. But first it’s all about the talent, your heart, your feelings.
I always tell my daughters that life is a game. Find what you have been made for and pursue it. Try to find what you are meant to do and Just Do it!
What’s next with Hublot?
I can’t tell you about it but it will be very nice!
What’s next for you?
Together with the Producers of Sin City in Los Angeles, we’re working on a very interesting project. We are going to change the value of time in a vary surrealistic way. I write stories like a Painter and not like a Novelist. will know more soon! The concept of time is a subject that has not been treated before.
Stay tuned!
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