Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
peintures
APPARENCE / REFLETS
texte
CLAUDEFRONTISI
Malys Seydoux pose son regard attentif de peintre sur les formes sans
surprise de son quotidien des tres avec lesquels elle fait corps : monde
des proches [p. 19], microcosme du chez-soi, volumtrie rectangle de latelier
[p.20], horizon clos des hautes barres dimmeubles, abme de la rue Espaces
paradoxaux, illimits quoique restreints, tranget familire, autant de sujets
dlection quelle aborde avec une audace retenue et dont elle saisit alors
lessentiel avec lingnuit trompeuse dune gestuelle concise. Elle dploie ces
thmatiques au fil de sries prospectives avec, inopinment parfois, lmergence
de solutions plastiques et diconographies indites [p.18].
Cela commena, durant les annes passes aux Arts dco, par la pratique
de lestampe. Choix de rencontre, assum toutefois jusqu entrer en rsonance,
par la grce du papier, avec le discours potique de Jean Tardieu (Une voix
sans personne. Le Monde immobile, 1992 [p.70]). Le dessin structurait alors les
planches, contraignant tant bien que mal la pousse des aplats chromatiques.
Puis, sous-tendu par le potentiel du colorisme, ce fut le saut brusqu dans
la cuisine de la peinture-peinture comme lon dit de nos jours : de plus
vastes formats conqurir petit petit, avec de nouvelles matires, dautres
instruments toile, huile, pigments, brosses Des uvres aussi qui se font
ou se dfont tout au long de leur procs, poursuivi en tte--tte. Pour cette
artiste, peindre est une aventure solitaire, mme si elle se hasarde exposer
ses uvres et, plus encore, les soumettre des jurys, non sans succs
Autoportrait, 2011, huile sur toile, 30 30 cm.
(PrixAntoineMarin, 1997).
1. Sujets/objets
consciemment.
2. propos de radeau
quelle retient entre ses mains est, on le constate un plateau qui porte une
dcoupe de sa propre tte. Mais ce peut tre encore le bouclier dairain poli,
Gorgo et Perse la fois, voil des rfrences qui ne manqueront pas dexciter
les exgses plus ou moins pertinentes. lvidence, dans la foule dimages
3. et de Mduse.
par Lonard, notre artiste ne (se) pose pas en tant que microcosme et rompt
ceux que pratiquaient parmi dautres Max Ernst (La Femme 100 ttes, 1929)
ou Ren Magritte (Le Viol, 1934), cest--dire sans colle. En effet, selon
Ernst, Si ce sont les plumes qui font le plumage, ce nest pas la colle qui fait
reste dconcert par son propre reflet saisi limproviste, comme par une
pour un bref instant. Il est possible que ce soit par lune de ces rencontres
fortuites que Malys Dumas ait dcouvert la capacit de son miroir circulaire
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en image. Quant aux fresquistes qui reprsentrent Salom dans les cycles
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Claude FRONTISI
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CATALOGUE
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Malys Seydoux looks at the habitual elements of her everyday life with the attentive
eyes of a painter, her gaze turning them into beings she becomes one with from the world
of those around her [p.19] to the microcosm of home, the square volumes of the studio [p.20],
the closed horizon of high-rise apartment blocks and the abyss of streets. These paradoxical
spaces constricted yet limitless, strange yet familiar are her subjects of choice. She treats them
with restrained boldness; her economical visual vocabulary grasps their essence with deceptive
ingenuity. Her works unfolds in prospective series in which, sometimes without warning, plastic
solutions and an original iconography emerge [p.18].
It all started with etching during her formative years at the cole Nationale Suprieure
des Arts Dcoratifs. Etching was chosen by chance, yet it led her to a fortunate encounter with
the poetic discourse of Jean Tardieu (Une voix sans personne. Le Monde immobile, 1992
[p.70]). Drawing provided a structure to the page and a form of resistance against the push
of chromatic planes. Then, from the potential of colorism, Malys Seydoux took the abrupt
plunge into theinner workingsas it were of actual painting, which implied larger formats, new
material and new equipment (canvas, oil, pigments, brushes) that had to be mastered gradually.
The paintings make themselves up or come undone throughout the creative process, a tte-tte between the painter and the painting. Painting is a solitary endeavor for Seydoux, even if
she sometimes exhibits her works or submits them, quite successfully, for the eyes of prize juries
(Antoine Marin Prize, 1997).
1. Subjets/objects
What to paint? This pressing century-old question has become even more pressing
under the fundamental laxity of the postmodernism. Until the 2000s, Malys Seydoux treated
very classical subjects: portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, so-called still lives (plants, books
[p.45]). The specific features of each of these categories resonated in the works themselves
these features are technical (thicker texture [p.43]), topological (the framing of the portraits
[p.2]), semantic (the temptation of abstraction [p.63]) or chromatic (gradual saturation of
colors [p.36]). These elements constitute the basis of a large field with virtually endless
combinations.
The decisive mutation in Seydouxs work that started with the current decade is
mostly manifest in the portraits in terms of iconography, painting technique, how space is
apprehended and the psychological implications of the works. Until then the artist was
relatively impassive in how she (prudently) represented her models (friends, family or patrons);
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only Sabine (My Mother) [Sabine (Ma Mre)] seemed loaded with more personal meaning
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[p.7]. Most models are represented in a frontal position right in the middle of the square
its integrity (and it has been well established that the body as humanistic system has been
of the canvas. Things are different for the self-portraits, where the painter is both object and
seriously fragmented by contemporary art, yet remains one of its undisputable actors).
subject. Their narrow, vertical format tightly frames the figure, who seems to participate in the
Her first recourse is the mirror, the instrument artists have used since the Middle Ages to
staging only reluctantly, almost stealthily, with her gaze paradoxically averted when tradition
usually has it pointed at the viewer. This is especially the case when the painter is not the only
herself can also be baffled at the impromptu sight of his or her own reflection, thus perceived
protagonist (see Stphane and Malys [Stphane et Malys, p. 17] and Crossing [Traverse,
as an alien image. I becomes another, even for a short moment. It may well be one of these
p. 18]). All this reveals, more or less consciously, a singular conception of the self.
fortuitous encounters that led Malys Dumas to discover that her circular mirror could produce
images that surprised even her. This process is without a doubt the origin of a long series
2. About a raft
with endless variations. The term fascination is totally appropriate here for that matter,
Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon and even Picasso were more than happy to cut their own
Let us focus more closely on four 2012 self-portraits in which Malys Seydouxs novel
heads off, on the canvas at least. Salome too is a recurring character in countless medieval and
ambitions appear in filigree. Each painting comes with a subtitle: The Brushes (LesPinceaux)
Renaissance murals. This, it turns out, is exactly the model that Malys Dumas seems to have
[p.21], Raft II (Radeau II) [p.8] and finally TheEscape (Lchappe) [p.27], which is both
inherited, which she reinterprets over and over again: the mirror that she keeps in her hands
a diversion and a culmination. Raft II is certainly the most remarkable piece in the series, both
is, in fact, a platter bearing a cutout of her own head. But it can also be the polished bronze
in terms of imagery and plasticity. Space becomes abstract, gaping, without any reference point,
shield simultaneously a reflecting surface and a defensive weapon that allowed Perseus to
as the background is all shapeless and abstract color. The only remaining tangible item is the
avoid Medusas petrifying gaze before beheading her. Salome and John the Baptist, the Gorgon
effigy carried by a precarious support (aflying carpet or a raft) a drunken boat floating on
and Perseus: such an impressive set of references will undoubtedly lead to a slew of more or
the tumultuous background reminiscent of an ink-dark sea. Precise identification does not really
less relevant exegeses. Looking at the abundant flow of images that the painter produces, it
matter, in fact, since confusion enhances the dreamlike quality of the dramatic scene. Clad in
is obvious that she scrutinizes herself, both physically and mentally, constantly changing the
her unpretentious work clothes, the artist, though ill assured, the artist moves forward with the
framing, the distance and the perspective, even to the point of flattening the image of her own
precarious balance of a tightrope walker. At the end of both arms large brushes balance her out,
face [p.25]. There is nothing narcissistic about this (even if she may not be aware of it). Her
literally and figuratively. The symbolism of all this is fairly transparent. But what makes itself
eyes, the mirror of the soul, are wide open, awestruck, and sometimes terrified in her quest
present and visible at the surface is without a doubt a growing pictorial awareness. It is as if
for an elusive reality and its terrifying pips, to quote Jacques Prverts Picassos Promenade
projective psychology came to the rescue of the image and took over objectified representation.
(1946). The images coherence is questioned through a collage like those of Max Ernst
A more in-depth analysis could be devoted to the expressionism and fullness of color, the
(The Hundred-Headed Woman Opens her August Sleeve, 1929) or Ren Magritte
amplitude of the red-punctured swinging movement, the dynamism of the gesture and, above
(The Rape, 1934). These are glueless collages: as Max Ernst put it, Feathers make the
all, the questioning look on the subjects face. Among its many roles, this look carries the key
plumage but glue does not make the collage.Other times, other customs: Malys Dumass work
to the relationship between the viewers and representation itself, thus carrying most of the
resembles more todays copy-and-paste. Yet at the end of the day, what she putson the spotare
It turns out that the artist offers a visual parable of her personal creation, a real allegory,
There is no way around it: some form of self-mutilation lies behind all self-portraits.
to quote Gustave Courbets wonderful catch phrase to describe what looks like a paradox but
is, in fact, a necessity. This allows the viewer to make out a form of self-assurance that is as
4. Painting as catharsis.
yet still uncertain, prudent and tainted with now permanent interrogations. The revealing title
The Escape unambiguously conveys this tension with a transparent visual metaphor, that
of the figure hiding behind the sheer veil of the studios blinds. Talk about a great escape.
Other series round up this corpus. They are more or less developed, as if suspended.
Themirror, sometimes broken (accidentally at first), appears several times as the motor for
the production of images, an element that is consubstantial with representation. On top of the
3. and Medusa.
blatant esthetic effect of this apparatus, it introduces a host of allusions, made transparent in
the collective title Tears of Ice (Larmes de glace) [p. 51].
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Malys Seydoux then continues her pictorial journey with new major processes that,
The 2013 series To Be or Not to Be is invested with more complex symbolism [p.29].
for the most part, engage the whole body. Unlike Da Vincis yesteryearVitruvian model,
The front view is contrasted with the opposing apartment buildings that close down the
MalysSeydoux does not consider her own body as a microcosm as she breaks away from
horizon with what seems to be an impassable barrier the only (narrow) escape is in the side
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streets, which are only partially seen. The paintings are divided vertically, like in a diptych,
sometimes by a window post. This division seems to reveal a composition conflict or a deeper
one (I would suggest caution in interpretation). In the middle of this claustral composition, the
now-famous circular mirror reappears to reflect the interior and to contaminate the outside
with the inside. At times the painters face surreptitiously appears in the mirror, sheepishly
projected in the perspective. Behind the Glass (Derrire la vitre) [p. 35] engages the
whole body in an abysmal struggle with emptiness, which is made even more dramatic in
the successive paintings of the same name [p.28 and p.33]. Finally To Be seems to solve
everything [p.31]. The sheer curtains are closed on the scene, calming things down. Betty can
then sprawl out leisurely for now at least on the scarlet bedspread, which she punctures like a
black stain [p.37]. Acta est fabula.
5. The hand is an eye.
Four years have passed since the first portraits mentioned here. It seems a short period of
time considering the decisive evolution of Malys Seydouxs pictorial language. Her work in
progress is based on serial themes, a process that has now imposed itself as her prime method.
She also uses simple optical devices material auxiliaries aimed at trapping raw visuals.
Simultaneously the painters own body both acting and represented engages in a visual
strategy that could be called expressionistic, or, at the very least, expressive.
This last component vanishes in the recent paintings or paintings in progress, which
Ievoke to finish on a high [p.60]. As the generic title of the series indicates, they are fourhanded painting, in the same way that there are four-handed piano scores: two portraits are
matched with their inverted, doubly fake reflections. The en abyme representation reunites
these two non-identical twins at the surfaces impassable edge, the opposite of the looking glass
Lewis Carroll imagined. The Figures are thus en abyme of the visible. The meanings attached
to the human hand are multiple and language becomes metonymic as soon as you speak
about the homo species. Thus when Seydoux represents her own hand, the artist summons
her whole art. These portraits, which could be deemed fragmentary, bear the definitive trace of
her style, or, more aptly in this case, her hand. Some painters, like Thodore Gricault, were
passionate about these anatomic paintings examined as such. For other artists (musicians
or writers), hands are immortalized in bronze, thus competing with death masks. As for
MalysSeydoux, she concentrates in a non-maiming image of her own hands the metaphor of
her current art (and thus omits the main tool, the brush). Some remarkably intense paintings
are thus sometimes flirting with extreme abstraction [p.62 or p. 63]. Such works are akin to
the Japanese experiments that she once conducted with the Vgtaux group in 2008-13
floating figures immerged in the expressive paradox of the vacuum [p.65 and 67].
It is then that the pretense of likeness dims down and gives way to the demanding logics of
economical, pure lines and the unspeakable triumph of color.
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Claude FRONTISI
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PPC (Pour prendre corps), 2015, huile sur toile, 19597 cm ( CF).
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