Death of Darrell Standing
huile sur toile 146×115 cm Prix4000€ + envoi
Darrell Standing has always been a provocateur. An artist’s heightened sensitivity, a passionate friend of painters, and the character of a Jack London novel. Darrell Standing was a lone wolf. On the eve of his death, the ultimate provocation and message from beyond, he sent me a selfie accompanied by these words: the red button is over, the blue button is the end. Signed Darrell Standing. A final smile flickers on his lips: what a trick he played on me!… It took me a month of haunting to be able to see. He wanted a history painting: here it is. I did what I could. The term historia was what, for Alberti, in the Renaissance, ensured the unity of the painting. Historia only became history as a “collection of events from a life” around the 12th century, if I’m not mistaken. Then the academy made it the narrative of exemplary events that great painting had to depict. Yet Chardin had turned it around with his Ray… A history painting therefore at the request of the late Darrell Standing, my friend. I played on two inverse perspectives and summoned some of the characters who gave all his appearances in my life (he was like that, appearing and disappearing immediately) the material of his novel. This painting was as exhausting to make as it was beneficial. I dedicate it to Pierre Labille.