Girlfriends (stripes)

Girlfriends (stripes), 2019 is a recent work by Claire Tabouret. Here she represents herself among friends. The title highlights the importance of the stripes in the painting, first in the background and then in the foreground on one of their T-shirts.

These stripes can conjure up this abstract and serial motif's explorations and its weight in the history of contemporary painting, from Buren to Parmentier or Agnes Martin (whom Claire Tabouret has already represented in her painting). A tension arises between the dynamics of the colours and the represented bodies and the faces, which express a certain melancholy. Although they hold our gaze—the two figures on either side are looking beyond the frame—and willingly face us, they all have an almost absent gaze, beyond the viewer's reach.

This work is presented for the first time in 2021 by the Pinault Collection in the inaugural exhibition of the Bourse de Commerce, entitled "Ouverture".