Cortège
2018
Oil on canvas
250 × 180 cm (98 7/16 × 70 7/8 in.)
Gicquel's painting asks the viewer a timeless, crucial and complex question: what is humanity? Through their poses and gazes, the figures in his paintings bear witness to their human condition.
In Cortege, three figures seem to be walking out of a barren landscape dotted with some enigmatic features: a railing and two red stars. Their bright colours and insistent, almost ironic gazes make them look all the more life-like. They prompt us to reflect on a definition of human nature. The dripping paint offers a sort of tragic-comic response to the hardships they have endured: to accept life, its setbacks and the passing of time.
Gicquel painted this large-scale work, which is in the Pinault Collection, for the "Debout !" ("Stand Up!") show at the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes in 2018.
In Cortege, three figures seem to be walking out of a barren landscape dotted with some enigmatic features: a railing and two red stars. Their bright colours and insistent, almost ironic gazes make them look all the more life-like. They prompt us to reflect on a definition of human nature. The dripping paint offers a sort of tragic-comic response to the hardships they have endured: to accept life, its setbacks and the passing of time.
Gicquel painted this large-scale work, which is in the Pinault Collection, for the "Debout !" ("Stand Up!") show at the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes in 2018.
Exhibitions
Courtesy galerie Thomas Bernard / Cortex Athletico
Photo: Rebecca Fanuele
