Pédoncule
2017
Oil on canvas
190 × 140 cm (74 13/16 × 55 1/8 in.)
Vincent Gicquel's poetic, unusual and melancholic painting Pédoncule (Stem) is as moving as it is confusing. The ageless, sexless figure is frozen in a perplexed pose amidst a spiral of petals. As almost always in the artist's paintings, it is hard to tell what the figure was doing before he was caught, and why he was doing it.
A composite assembly of branches, vines and leaves forms a counterpoint, recalling the aesthetics of Japanese prints. Like many of Gicquel's other works, the painting Pédoncule suggests a world where insignificance and poverty are the key words. The work’s ambiguity, lightness and apparent naivety make it seem as much like a child's drawing as a projection of Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus into another dimension.
Part of the Pinault Collection since 2018, Pédoncule was first exhibited at the Couvent des Jacobins on the occasion of the "Debout !" ("Stand Up!") show in a room set aside for the artist.
A composite assembly of branches, vines and leaves forms a counterpoint, recalling the aesthetics of Japanese prints. Like many of Gicquel's other works, the painting Pédoncule suggests a world where insignificance and poverty are the key words. The work’s ambiguity, lightness and apparent naivety make it seem as much like a child's drawing as a projection of Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus into another dimension.
Part of the Pinault Collection since 2018, Pédoncule was first exhibited at the Couvent des Jacobins on the occasion of the "Debout !" ("Stand Up!") show in a room set aside for the artist.
Exhibitions
Courtesy Galerie Thomas Bernard - Cortex Athletico
Photo: Rebecca Fanuele
