Here, walls have ears - be very careful what you say - heroes, a bit of belly, still lifes are reborn and illusions make sure they're clearly visible.
Elsewhere, around 1483, Sandro Botticelli put the finishing touches to his Venus and Mars. The work, long and often analyzed from the angle of beauty, spirituality and absolute grace, reveals itself to be far more complex in contemporary readings[1]: by unearthing written, popular and parodic archives, we discover a burlesque and saucy Botticelli, skilfully and offhandedly mocking certain proprieties and turning Mars and Venus into a duo struggling with the vicissitudes of a married life that no longer has anything divine about it. He's asleep, snoring no doubt. She looks at him, disappointed and disenchanted. The little fauns around them do not fail to grasp the comical nature of the situation and mock it. Botticelli is enjoying himself. Without abandoning his sensitive, meticulous touch, his brush sneers and smiles.
It was this canvas that was sent, as an example, to the artists in the exhibition, simply to signify that one canvas could always hide another. From there, Art is a serious game began to laugh seriously at the clichés that would make art and its history a strictly serious affair, and sought not to deny the enjoyment that comes with being able to create something funny. The eight contemporary artists invited to take part in this exhibition have lent themselves or their work to the exercise of offering a profound reflection on humor and creating a joke in the form of an art history. With a pinch of impertinence and just the right amount of derision and detachment, the works presented in this exhibition attempt to thwart certain rules and underline a few clichés. With black humor, yellow laughter and even a candy-pink gaze, these artists reflect on the notions of rewriting, irony, trompe l'œil, language and taste that govern art history and sometimes dictate the codes of contemporary art.
Despite their differences in tone and style, several things come together and link these artists: anti-heroes rub shoulders with symbols, dogs break out of their usual shackles, bodies sometimes emancipate themselves against their will, baroque flirts with kitsch and puns run riot. Everything responds to each other with mischief and understanding: art where humor can be lodged, finely or ostensibly, is no less beautiful, or no less profound. And in its gentle insolence, it is sometimes simply less haughty than long speeches that mean the same thing: love, the theater of life, death, desire. History, childhood and beauty.
Art is a very serious game. We discuss beautiful gestures and colors with a sometimes terrible air. It's so serious that sometimes it's good to remember that it's the most sensitive product of the most attentive humans. It's just that artists, who are also humans, sometimes laugh; but that's never stopped them from being good ones.
« Because to laugh is proper to the man.[2] ».
Laure Saffroy-Lepesqueur
WILLEHAD EILERS (*1981, DE)
ADRIEN EYRAUD (*1982, FR)
CLÉO GARCIA (*1991, FR)
KARINE HOFFMAN (*1974, FR)
MARGAUX LAURENS-NEEL (*1997, FR)
EVE MALHERBE (*1987, FR)
SARANE MATHIS (*1996, FR)
ANDRÉ WENDLAND (*1995, DE)
Works shown:
1/ Sarane Mathis, Le cul de Pierre, 2022, Oil on canvas, 14 x 21 cm 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 in, Unique
2/ Karine Hoffman, How are you Banana?, 2018, Oil on painting, 195 x 130 cm, 77 x 51 in, Unique
