Hervé Thibon was born in 1963 in Nîmes in the south of France, where he later successfully graduated from high school after having followed a mainly scientific cursus. Concurrently to his studies, as a highly talented cartoonist he often contributed to underground science fiction fan magazines, working for authors such as Joëlle Wintrebert, Emmanuel Jouanne, or Michel Pagel. In 1984, he illustrated the short stories from Lionel Evrard, "La vitre brisée, douze éclats du monde avaient chu sur le sol..." in the "Bonsaï Littéraires" collection for the editors "La Découverte Australe". ( keyword: eglomise )
 
Although enrolled in the faculty of medicine in Nîmes, he rapidly realised that he was not following his vocation. He nevertheless kept from this experience a great fascination for anatomical drawing, which combines precise technical linear expression with the humanity of the subject. He began to study Plastic Arts at the university of Aix-en-Provence under the guidance of Jean-Pierre Hémery. The years spent in Aix-en-Provence are not only formative but also experimental: in 1988, he realized his first painting on glass fragments. Distant cousins of medieval stained glass windows, of which they retain the transparency and bright colours, heirs to certain Italien and Spanish glass handwork techniques dating back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (reverse-painted, or eglomized glass), these virtuosic minute fragments fascinate their author through the various surprises brought about by superposition of transparencies, the inversion of the lines or even the hazards of the support.

In 1994 for the "Petites Attentions" exhibition at the Montbard Buffon Museum, Hervé Thibon inaugurated a new technique for engraving with etching ground on minute fragments of glass which allies the sheer linear purety of engraving with the luminosity and transparency of colours "fixed-under-glass": these moderne icones reconcile the technical precision of etching with delightfully exquisite colouring, in a pictural approach very near to that of modern electronic imagery, due both to the support (glass/monitor) and to the colour (produced by additive synthesis).

As a highly qualified teacher (Agrégé d'Arts Plastiques in 1990) Hervé Thibon currently trains students at the teachers training college in Reims (Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres de Reims). A founding member of the artistic society "L'oeil alerte", this rare and secret artist presents his work within the framework of a contemporary reflection on engraving and the glass support (convening amongst others Corot, Favier or even Duchamp) through the group at various exhibitions (Charleville-Mézières 1988, Dijon 1993 and Montbard in 1994).

© Gilles Duvert ( keyword: eglomise )
English translation by Deborah Elliot Urbain