Claude Perrault

Painting and collage
11.20–12.21.1997

A sort of Baroque chapel defines the space where Claude Perrault poses his pictorial questions in a dizzying manner. Wedged within it are decadent figures from the spectacle of society—stars, heroes, and emblems—whose wavering images are rendered using the humblest of materials. Clippings from pornographic magazines—choice cuts of flesh (penises and pectorals) accentuating the play of light and shadow on a face—form the painted substance and style, while the frame is composed of assorted items from discount stores: figurines, cherubs, and plastic fruit, all uniformly spray-painted gold. Their compulsive accumulation gives material expression to the profusion of forms and the consumerism that characterizes our contemporary world’s relationship with these icons. Meanwhile, the star system—recast through religious iconography such as the Nativity and bathed in a convulsive, fiery, and precious light—symbolically reveals the fleeting nature and fragility of the figures we hold as absolutes in our collective imagination. A most felicitous paradox juxtaposes the sheer energy of the artistic means with the artificial quality of these paintings. This highlights the ability of certain images to make a strong impression on the viewer despite their material composition, casting a critical eye on our modern archetypes even as they appear to exalt them.

Patrice Duhamel