JEAN-PAUL GAVARD-PERRET | FEBRUARY 8, 2018
Evocative of the daily or murderous violence of the world, Jacques Monory’s blue (but sometimes pink) works have, for 40 years, been a faithful reproduction of reality – particularly through traditional and stereotypical images of American life – to a dreamlike phantasmagoria.
This percussion operates an undeniable impression of discomfort, a feeling of end of the world, as if things, and especially the light and the sun, had suddenly gone mad and rocked into the night. It is to this reversal exploited in its ambiguity, that invites us the beautiful set of the first exhibition in New York of the painter. Understand how from black / white photos he creates himself or cut in the press Monory builds his images to appropriate the world by mimicry while offering as a kind of warning.
America – country or myth – occupies a large place in the work. Monory keeps a fascination for its landscapes, its vast expanses of desert, the almost childlike cult of objects (cars, revolvers, hats), the mixture of stereotypes almost bland, violence and romance that stands out against a backdrop of black novel title . A great lover of shooting, the artist goes so far as to screen hundreds of canvases (“after a visit to Arizona where Inspector Harry Zona”), including a series entitled Meurtre where he stages his own assassination. in a cold and blue atmosphere.
More generally, there are still stories that are supposed to happen, as the artist himself indicates, “behind or beside the painting, which, in the first degree, may seem like a commonplace image . ” The viewer of such “black novels” is invited to “relate” through them, grafting his own fantasies as his paintings function as large soup containers common and popular images.
Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret
Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret is a poet, critic and lecturer in communication at the University of Savoie, France. Jacques Monory From January 12 to February 23, 2018 Richard Taittinger Gallery 154 Ludlow St New York, NY 10002 USA