REGNER has left us a large collection of engravings which describe the same themes as most of his paintings, though, they also, at times, address new themes not found in his paintings.
The maze of the automatic drawing, flowing undulations or merciless lasso, hypnotizes the viewer and makes him more receptive to the piece of art; in the paintings, he plays with the opulence of shapes and colors, but in the engravings, he delivers us the artist on edge. Dizzying Maelstrom, he takes us to a world, at first aleatory but where, suddenly, the form and the imperious necessity of the evidence impose themselves. The artist plows the metal of the copperplate leaving a fierce impression, a furrow made by the point or the burin. That metal, once the surface has been wiped, refuses any easy effects of ink or 'veil'. Naked art. The mystery in bright light. But, when a mystery is revealed, only a few can see it, and there again, it is the work of the little monsters.
This is how REGNER's work appears, mysterious, meditative and profound, curious and indiscreet, grotesque and comical, but always of magnificent fullness.
A text written by Henry LHOTELLIER. This text appeared in the magazine, Bononia, no. 18 of the first semester of 1991. This review is published by the Association des amis du musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer. (Translated and edited into English by Dan Harder, Christine Lemor-Drake and Catherine Theilen Burke).
Alfred Georgres REGNER, Painter-Engraver