Anton Kaestner (XX) - #271 - S - " Above the line ".

Above the line
Unicum, an original work by Anton Kaestner, directly from the Parisian workshop.

Acrylic sprayed onto a 3 mm plexiglass panel.
This board is not a print. It is an original artwork painted with multiple layers of paint and/or spray paint, with a glossy finish that appears like applying a resin, making it unique.

Dimensions: 32 * 23 * 0.3 cm without frame.
This painting is delivered without a frame.
Frame of the German brand Nielsen in aluminum, reference 34 Natura 514 Chêne (inch 0.23 * 1.38 / 0.6 * 3.5 cm) recommended and available for shipment at an additional cost of €70.

The work is signed on the back.
An authenticity certificate is accompanied by this.
The delivery is covered by insurance.

Anton Kaestner is a Swiss painter, sculptor, and author based in Paris. His works are exhibited throughout Europe, Switzerland, and Dubai. For more information and options, see www.antonkaestner.com.

Next exhibition - Lausanne October 2025.


Biography

Born in Geneva, Switzerland, I grew up amidst the natural beauty and cultural richness of my homeland. Creativity was valued in my family, and it was my late grandfather, a craftsman and artist, whose influence planted the seed for what would eventually become my life's passion.
In 1993, I started painting privately, experimenting with numerous acrylic paints in A4 and A3 notebooks. I was initially attracted to non-figurative painting and abstract expressionism. Over time, and although I consider myself an atheist, I also developed a fondness for spiritual materials because they resonated with my exploration of human existence, melancholy, and the deeper truths of nature and life.
However, the path to truly becoming an artist was not immediate.
For more than three decades, I have pursued an international business career that took me around the world, from the United States to Morocco, Belgium, through Asia and France. My travels broadened my perspective and exposed me to a wide range of cultural influences. Wherever I went, I immersed myself in the local art scenes and engaged with the creative energy of each place.
Despite focusing on my business career, art has always been a part of me, quietly simmering beneath the surface. For nearly 30 years, painting became a form of secret meditation for me—a way to escape the world and focus on my inner self.
I have always found great fulfillment in painting. Each new work is a journey where I can test my creativity, explore new techniques, and experience genuine moments. Through my art, I always hope to offer others an authentic encounter with beauty, a chance to see the world from a different perspective and reflect on their own lives.
In 2021, after ending my business career, I dedicated myself entirely to painting. I set up my studio in Paris and fully committed to my art. By the end of 2023, I launched my public artistic career, and to my surprise, my work quickly gained recognition, with pieces finding their way into private collections across Europe, especially in France, Portugal, Germany, and the Netherlands.


Artistic CV

My first solo exhibition, 'Échos,' held in late 2024 in Paris, showcased an original approach to art, away from traditional painting techniques: I paint with acrylic, metallic pigments, and sprays on the back of recycled extruded plexiglas, a light, smooth, glossy, and sometimes fragile substrate.
This process prevents me from seeing the work as it develops. I have no visual feedback or control during the process—something I welcome. I allow 'happy accidents'—anything goes—to bypass reasoning!—to determine the outcome, the layers and mirror effects I create, and to leave room for revelation and discovery when the piece is finally exposed. This approach, resonating with the process of revelation / fixation in photography, is challenging and liberating. The values of composition are enriched by layers and transparencies, but each work also gains an 'ascetic' character: I am satisfied when I recognize 'inalienable needs,' that is, what we will likely discover when we pause quietly and in the light.
I deliberately keep my approach simple. Neither 'feeling' nor 'theoretical concept' but the experience of being. Neither 'rapid consumption' nor 'intellectualization / intellectual possession' but broadening consciousness and exploring reality, its visible and invisible stories. My art is a quest for 'life in the heart of life,' 'le vif,' as French science fiction master Alain Damasio would say.
Although my work sometimes evokes the transparency and luminosity of stained glass, it remains almost entirely abstract. Moreover, the plexiglass gives the painting a glossy surface in which one can see their own silhouette, different for each new viewer. Each piece functions as a discreet mirror: it lives, it changes, it sees.
The interplay of light, color, and texture, including the missing parts, requires only empathy. Hopefully, the interplay between 'details for close-up' and 'distance for the whole' will encourage viewers to begin their own introspective journeys.
I do not claim to have all the answers and wish to remain humble about what can be achieved. I simply find satisfaction in the ongoing process of asking questions and growing. Each new creation is a confrontation with my limits, which encourages me to improve my skills and explore further what I can accomplish. Painting is a daily craft for me, an exploration, a way to foster meaningful conversations.

As Jean Bazaine would say: 'Daily practice multiplies the passion for seeing.'

Anton Kaestner