CY PAVEL

Couple man and woman in conversation; around the question of seduction, like confrontation. The man being freely interpreted with his only face. The woman is naked in profile. The man's bulging eyes betray his desire and his astonishment...

Oil on canvas

Oil pastel

Painting

Body

Contemporary

Figurative

Woman

Nude

Couple in conversation

Oil Painting

LOVE STORY

Figuration Libre

As in all these series, pictorial and graphic zones from which resurface heterogeneous and anachronistic fragments of art images and paintings torn from time,
 updates, tears to pieces for an unexpected as well as new destination. Torn, superimposed, intertwined, these collages and take-offs play with eclecticism,
 the hybrid, the chimera, the motley, even the ruin, to represent paradoxically, here again and always in the present. The pictorial film remains visible with its 
repentance, its traces, its overlaps. De-figuration / reconfiguration, the fragment hides a detail, a movement is lost in its course, a mask obliterates a look,
 a writing is drowned under another. Freed from their origins and as if from nowhere, crossed gestures and glances once again surface, here and now,
 agree and dialogue before our eyes in the reconquest of a new space-time. Heterotopia of art, heterochrony of painting, here even these "curiosities"
 beckon us (sometimes with humor), despite the imminence of loss, the threat of erasure...

"ROUND" (N°34) : A detail of Rembrandt's Night Round reappears here from below the painting. And in the middle of a pictorial and graphic context 
which is a kind of palimpsest of different fragments of my own anachronistic paintings between them too! .. This eventful context, where everything seems 
to capsize, echoes this astonishing "Round" of a Rembrandt who gives himself great freedom for a control panel; at the time a voluntary transgression of codes. 
(Rembrandt slips into this scene of "visual puns", highlights a young dwarf girl, undoubtedly the canteen of the company, who holds a plucked rooster in her belt,
 while the captain Cocq holds out her hand as a sign of walking.) Obviously the freedom of creation claimed by the artist and an undisguised irony!… 
From this detail, we can see more here than the face of the woman, the outstretched hand of the captain and the point of the spear of his companion;
 ... interpretation left to the discretion of the "viewer" ... The hustle and bustle ambient accompanies it !...

– "It should not be said that the past illuminates the present or that the present illuminates the past. An image, on the contrary, is where the Old
 meets the Now in a flash to form a constellation."     Walter Benjamin.

Acrylic on canvas

Acrylic on paper

Collage

Crayon

Graphite

Mixed media on canvas

Pastel

A detail of Rembrandt's Night Round reappears here from below the painting. And in the middle of a pictorial and graphic context which is a kind of palimpsest of different fragments of my own anachronistic paintings between them too! 

Culture

Interpretation of Painting

History

Expression

Vanities

Free Figuration

Palimpsest

Memory

Rembrandt

The Round Night

Curiosities

People

Portrait

"PALIMPSESTS SERIES": This inaugural and limited series prefigures the expected disappearance of painting, and this although paradoxically affirming here again its permanence. There is a literal step back in time, in search of the lost image, traces of its genesis and its erasure. It is a work of anamnesis which is played out concretely in the confrontation with the support. The board has difficulty delivering its undersides, layer after layer, to bring out the vestiges of buried images, victims of the ravages of time; and that even if the process of ruin is inevitable ... A fight delivered to the "painting wall", to this pictorial and graphic "palimpsest" to tear from it fragments of representation, ghostly remains, which seem to resurface from the bottom , covered, erased, repainted; so many lost images, taken in the leaf of the painting. These past representations and their alterations nonetheless take shape again from this erasure, in this entropic process in suspense, in this slow erosion of the pictorial fabric revealing its secrets ... There emerge fragments of mythical, legendary or mythological images, tragedies. forgotten, ancient representations obscurely present. A rise in time; a "formerly" laid bare, still inscribed in the material.

VANITY - PAL / N ° 8 (1998 -2010): Here, the figure of an archaic "Venus" reappears alongside the off-scale drawing of a skull in profile; he faces him as if to remind him of the inevitable peril of death. According to the adage, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity", seems to tell him what remains of this skull inscribed in the material ... Echoing the "Vanitas painting" of the 17th century, the scene foreshadows the expected disappearance of all things and of the living itself; be it the ideal beauty of an immemorial "Venus", the sensuality of a still visible female nude, the painting itself already foreshadows its disappearance. However, we still admire the roundness and velvety of a breast, the fruitiness of its color, its skin protected by resin and wax ... The haptic dimension of the revealed material image captures our attention all the more, that she is doomed to the ineluctable erasure of which the painting already bears the traces.



Tempera

Fragile reappearance of an archaic "Venus" in the erosion of the pictorial film, alongside the off-scale drawing of a skull in profile. The reminder of his expected disappearance, like that of the "painting" itself.

Trace Of Time

"VANITIES":  (N.C/ N°22 )

 In this work reappears a detail of a large painting by Antoine WATTEAU, L’Enseigne de Gersaint, 1720, Louvre Museum, Paris. A work painted just before his death, it is a scene in a period "gallery" where art lovers of wealthy status converse to admire and acquire new paintings. According to the adage "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity", and art itself is not it?! ... And what about the admiring eagerness of these customers, art lovers of 'one day, vanity too?! ... And all in an atmosphere of futility and the end of the reign of the Sun King (Gersaint had called his shop "Au Grand Monarque") - a widow inspects the landscape using of his face-to-face, while his companion looks at female nudes! - A testament work by Watteau, no doubt; Is genuine art really recognized for what it is? And what about the durability of painting ?! ...
Moreover, this detail of Watteau fits into a rather baroque and chaotic "fauna", where past and present hang out; the present is already slipping away and the past going back with nostalgia; pell-mell, a beautiful photographic fragment by Walker Evans ("Girl in Fulton Street, New York" (detail), 1929. © 2020 W. Evans, MoMA): black and white profile portrait of a pretty modern woman in this street in New York at the turn of the century, a skull itself in profile, the imprints of an allusive eroticism, bulging glances that crowd from everywhere in an anarchic and aimless bustle ...
As in all this series, pictorial and graphic areas from which resurface heterogeneous and anachronistic fragments of art images and paintings torn from time, updated, torn to pieces for an unexpected as well as a new destination. Torn, superimposed, intertwined, these collages and take-offs play with eclecticism, the hybrid, the chimera, the motley, even ruin, to paradoxically appear, here again and always in the present. The pictorial film remains visible with its repentance, its traces, its overlaps. De-figuration / reconfiguration, the fragment hides a detail, a movement is lost in its course, a mask obliterates a look, a writing is drowned under another. Freed from their origins and as if from nowhere, crossed gestures and glances once again surface, here and now, agree and dialogue before our eyes in the reconquest of a new space-time. Heterotopia of art, heterochrony of painting, here even these "curiosities" beckon to us (sometimes with humor), despite the imminent loss, the threat of erasure ...
- "It should not be said that the past illuminates the present or that the present illuminates the past. An image, on the contrary, is where the Old meets the Now in a flash to form a constellation." Walter Benjamin

Acrylic

Série Nouvelles Curiosités d'après A. Watteau

«INFANTE»: Ici, dans ce contexte pictural s'intègre un détail d'un célèbre «portrait de cour» de VÉLASQUEZ, L'Infante Marguerite, 1659, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienne, Autriche. Il s'agit de confronter ce portrait de «Princesse royale» à un environnement peuplé de personnage d'une liberté graphique débridée. Une gageure d'intégrer ce précieux portrait aristocratique dans un environnement aussi chaotique et ironique… A droite, un portrait ou masque dans un style primitif, voire «picassesque» ne perd pas des yeux l'Infante rayonnante dans des tonalités de bleus, mais offerte à d'étranges "tentations" sans qu'elle en soit perturbée pour autant ... Comme dans toute cette série, des zones picturales et graphiques d'où ressurgissent des fragments hétérogènes et anachroniques d'images d'art et de peintures arrachées au temps, mises à jour, mises en pièces pour une destination inattendue autant qu'inédite. Déchirés, superposés, entrelacés, ces collages et décollages jouent avec éclectisme, de l'hybride, de la chimère, de l'hétéroclite, voire de la ruine, pour figurer paradoxalement, ici encore et toujours au présent. Le feuil pictural reste visible avec ses repentirs, ses traces, ses recouvrements. Dé-figuration / reconfiguration, le fragment cache un détail, un mouvement se perd dans sa course, un masque oblitère un regard, une écriture se noie sous une autre. Libérés de leurs origines et comme venus de nulle part, des gestes et des regards croisés font à nouveau surface, ici et maintenant, s'accordent et dialoguent sous nos yeux dans la reconquête d'un nouvel espace-temps. Hétérotopie de l'art, hétérochronie de la peinture, ici-même ces «curiosités» nous font signe (parfois avec humour), malgré l'imminence de la perte, la menace de l'effacement… - «Il ne faut pas dire que le passé éclaire le présent ou que le présent éclaire le passé. Une image, au contraire, est ce en quoi l'Autrefois rencontre le Maintenant dans un éclair pour former une constellation. » Walter Benjamin.

Série Nouvelles Curiosités d'après D. Vélasquez

The temptation of an Infanta princess

"D'OLYMPIA”:  (N.C/ N°30 )

Here, in this new pictorial context, Titian's famous Venus is transformed, so to speak, into an “Olympia”, echoing that of E. Manet ... She reappears from below the painting, but only partially uncovered, and actualizes herself in the tactile and sensitive present of the painting. Very close again and dominating the space, she solicits the viewer's gaze with her charms ...; or someone who breaks into the scene instantly. And we know that Manet particularly appreciated Titian's Venus ... (Iconographic reference: TITIEN, La Vénus d'Urbino, 1534, Uffizi Museum, Florence, Italy). 
As in all this series, pictorial and graphic zones from which resurface heterogeneous and anachronistic fragments of art images and paintings torn from time, updates, tears to pieces for an unexpected as well as new destination. Torn, superimposed, intertwined, these collages and take-offs play with eclecticism, the hybrid, the chimera, the motley, even the ruin, to represent paradoxically, here again and always in the present. The pictorial film remains visible with its repentance, its traces, its overlaps. De-figuration / reconfiguration, the fragment hides a detail, a movement is lost in its course, a mask obliterates a look, a writing is drowned under another. Freed from their origins and seemingly out of nowhere, crossed gestures and glances make a new surface, here and now, agree and dialogue before our eyes in the reconquest of a new space-time. Heterotopia of art, heterochrony of painting, here even these "curiosities" beckon us (sometimes with humor), despite the imminence of loss, the threat of erasure ...
- "We must not say that the past illuminates the present or may the present illuminate the past. An image, on the contrary, is where the Old meets the Now in a flash to form a constellation." Walter Benjamin.

Série Nouvelles Curiosités  d'après Titien

Female

Venus

"FLORA":  (N.C/ N°24)

 Here, in this new pictorial context, this detail of the famous idealized portrait of Rembrandt's lover, represented as the goddess of Flora, is confronted with the female photographic portraits of Walker Evans, taken in the New York subway. (Iconographic references: REMBRANDT, Flora, Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels, ca 1654, Metropolitan Museum of Arts, New-York; and Walker EVANS, Photographs, New York subway, 1938-1931). In this confrontation, a double gap, both anachronistic and symbolic, manifests itself: portrait of an idealized woman, and portrait of a woman in our most banal daily life, and subject to the loss of identity.
As in all this series, pictorial and graphic zones from which resurface heterogeneous and anachronistic fragments of art images and paintings torn from time, updates, tears to pieces for an unexpected as well as new destination. Torn, superimposed, intertwined, these collages and take-offs play with eclecticism, the hybrid, the chimera, the motley, even the ruin, to represent paradoxically, here again and always in the present. The pictorial film remains visible with its repentance, its traces, its overlaps. De-figuration / reconfiguration, the fragment hides a detail, a movement is lost in its course, a mask obliterates a look, a writing is drowned under another. Freed from their origins and as if from nowhere, crossed gestures and glances once again surface, here and now, agree and dialogue before our eyes in the reconquest of a new space-time. Heterotopia of art, heterochrony of painting, here even these "curiosities" beckon us (sometimes with humor), despite the imminence of loss, the threat of erasure ... - "We must not say that the past illuminates the present or may the present illuminate the past. An image, on the contrary, is where the Old meets the Now in a flash to form a constellation." Walter Benjamin.

Série des Curiosités  d'après  Flora de Rembrandt

Here, in this pictorial context, a detail of a famous painting by Vermeer is integrated: Soldier and Young Girl laughing, that 1657, Frick Collection, New-York. This work by its title and its origin echoes the Flemish context of Marguerite Yourcenar's novel: "L'Oeuvre au noir". The adventures of the spiritual quest strewn with pitfalls of his hero Zeno. In a way, the environment refers to the tumult and chaos that it has to face throughout life until death. (Zenon's head in profile at the top left among the multiple characters swarming around, and in contrast with "the gallant conversation" of the Vermeer scene! ...) As in all this series, pictorial and graphic zones from which resurface heterogeneous and anachronistic fragments of art images and paintings torn from time, updates, tears to pieces for an unexpected as well as new destination. Torn, superimposed, intertwined, these collages and take-offs play with eclecticism, the hybrid, the chimera, the motley, even the ruin, to represent paradoxically, here again and always in the present. The pictorial film remains visible with its repentance, its traces, its overlaps. De-figuration / reconfiguration, the fragment hides a detail, a movement is lost in its course, a mask obliterates a look, a writing is drowned under another. Freed from their origins and as if from nowhere, crossed gestures and glances once again surface, here and now, agree and dialogue before our eyes in the reconquest of a new space-time. Heterotopia of art, heterochrony of painting, here even these "curiosities" beckon us (sometimes with humor), despite the imminence of loss, the threat of erasure ... - "We must not say that the past illuminates the present or may the present illuminate the past. An image, on the contrary, is where the Old meets the Now in a flash to form a constellation. " Walter Benjamin.

Nouvelles Curiosités-série (2),2020, d'après  J. Vermeer