click images to enlarge          Biography Born in Paris, October 5th 1951, in a family of artists and explorers : on the mother’s side, a grand father, Pierre PETIT, photographer, who became famous with the creation of the « Yvon post cards » ; on the father’s side, Roberto HAARDT, orientalist painter, and his brother Georges-Marie HAARDT, head of the famous citroen expeditions « Croisière noire » and « Croisière jaune ». He spent part of his childhood in black Africa, then in France, where he was awoken to painting, sculpture and body expression at the MARTENOT school. Married to a physician, father of two children, he lives and works in Paris. Having worked as antiquarian, then as textile decoration creator, he decides to concentrate on his art. This is what he says about it "As it is the case with every creator, there are successive periods in my work, but the link that unites them is my taste for primary colors, strong contrasts, large expanses of space, profound imprints of my african childhood. With my first period, I have worked large oil on canvas formats, where I privileged the depth of field, as if in order to « get into the canvas ». Then surfaced the need to look for forms in them and bring those to the surface : I wanted to sculpt the canvas. I looked then for a material that I could form and model, and I was brought to measure the idea of plasitcity. Then I worked on color in space, and the distortable plastic material became an appreciated support for installations in natural settings, a new approach in my work. Two orientation for my present approach : modeling paintings on rigid plastic, heated and sculpted ; and working on space and color in natural settings. This last approach inspires a combat form whose rules appear as : communication, contact and recognition of the others ». Didier HAARDT animates various creation workshops with students in different professional schools, and works with autistic teenagers and adults, what he says is « an essential part of his creative approach". Recent exhibitions : Galerie du Grand Cerf, Paris Galerie Maurice Ravel, Paris Galerie Quai 17, Royan Recent shows : Salon d’Art Contemporain de la Bastille, Paris Salon d’Art Contemporain de Bercy, Paris Recent Happening : Honorary Invitee, Place Monge, Paris 5, Le Cru et le cuit workshop. Honorary Invitee, Quai de Montebello, Paris 4 Honorary Invitee, chateau de la Ferté Millon, birthplace of Jean Racine. Invited to the Futur composé festival.