DELHOMME – PERROTIN
Jean-Philippe Delhomme’s new paintings continue to explore a subtle reflection on human presence and the authenticity of the gaze. The exhibition Model Resting is organized around portraits and still lifes, with the word Model emphasizing a direct relationship with the person present and the word Resting introducing the question of inactivity.
For the artist, the idea is not to paint a model in a traditional sense, through poses and artifice, as has occurred throughout art history, but to attempt to capture an individuality, a particular presence, usually through a “non-pose,” with the model choosing to get involved or not. This distinctive approach rejects any staging by painting directly from life, far from social constructions or mediations imposed by contemporary gazes.
Delhomme works exclusively “from life,” in the English expression, or “d’après-nature,” according to the French term, i.e., with the immediate presence of his models or the objects for his still lifes in the studio, without ever using photography or any other image sources.
In this quest for immediacy, his models are not professional models, but familiar people, mostly women, whose presence and faces inspire him.
In some cases, he is inspired by an artistic friendship, like the two paintings he made of Michèle Bernstein, a friend and studio neighbor, the cofounder of one of the last avant-garde movements, the Situationist International. This connection is perhaps a subtle reference to the artist’s desire to oppose the “society of the spectacle.”
His sittings are unusually brief. They generally last three hours and the paintings are often completed in a single session, as can be seen by the fluidity of the paint and the energetic brushstrokes that confirm the impression of a rapid execution.