Noon Mediterranean Landscape

1966

Photographic technic, collage, acrylic, flocking on canvas and neon tube on Plexiglas support

203 x 192 x 10 cm (79 15/16 x 75 9/16 x 3 15/16 in.)

The first thing viewers notice is a bright, central, L-shaped neon light bathing the work in a bright orange glow. It vertically splits the composition, which is divided into five canvasses supporting a black mesh on a coloured background combining photography, collage, acrylic and flocking. In this eloquently titled abstract work, the glaring frontality of neon evokes the sunlight of the French Riviera, where Martial Raysse was born.

Noon Mediterranean Landscape connects the artist's attraction to the evocative power of neon with his own philosophy of composite art. The division into five canvases recalls the artist's view of the way of "looking" characteristic of the modern era, which he considers compartmentalised and scattered.

Made in a decade of experimenting with Pop Art, Raysse's Noon Mediterranean Landscape is in the Pinault Collection. It was first displayed at the "Sequence 1" show in 2007 at the Palazzo Grassi.
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