Aplomb

Most of Gicquel's paintings depict simply and expressively drawn figures. Usually alone or in pairs, they seem to be busy carrying out undetermined tasks in barren landscapes. Their very presence raises the question of humanity and the meaning of existence.

In Aplomb, the figure, alone in the middle of the painting, casts a questioning, challenging glance out of the corner of his eye. The role of the one who is watching and the one who is being watched is reversed. The painting’s vivid colours recall the idea at the heart of the artist's work: the contrast between a celebration of life and an awareness of death. The dripping colours evoke the blood that oxygenates our bodies and flows through our veins.

"I stretch man, from the first cave paintings to the species of the future. The one I paint has no real age, gender or ethnicity, but he has withstood natural disasters. He is quite primitive in his pose and almost translucent because of everything he has gone through: he is a survivor," says the artist. Aplomb, which is in the Pinault Collection, seems to transcribe this act of survival.