Chin raised above her shoulder, she casts a final provocative glance behind her.
In an evil grin, a toothless skull whispers to her that her perfect beauty will soon be extinct.
A quote from classic vanities, which has become a true trademark for Éric Lacan.
The artist became known at the end of the 2000s thanks to his street collages featuring disturbing women in black and white.
Read also: "In contemporary art, beauty has almost become taboo"
Something has changed, however, in the works presented on the occasion of
Brûlures (to be taken in the third degree)
, Eric Lacan's fourth solo exhibition at the Open Space gallery.
The faces are full, less gaunt, the looks seem more frank and the expressions less ecstatic.
Lacan's art is cutting.
A fine cut, with a sharp stylus.
Eric Lacan / Open Space
Has the artist found the way to appeasement on the beaches of Sète, where he recently settled?
The hallucinatory visions of
All monsters are human
(2014) have evolved into more human figures.
As for the overloaded compositions of
Beautiful Decay
(2017), they have given way to a clever balance between full and empty, in a sense of contrast of which the artist has the secret.
A formidable energy
Other novelties are to be noted.
Like the roundness of three Tondo formats, which moreover arouse the happiness of gallery owner Samantha Longhi,
"passionate about the Italian Renaissance"
.
Éric Lacan also introduced color in the meticulous work of cutting and collage which made his success.
Evidenced by a series of four cut-out works, named after the summer months, in which the artist has integrated fragments of musical scores.
However, we should hardly be mistaken.
The artist has not lost any of the formidable energy that gives his works their visual power.
The lush flowers, symbols of the fleetingness of the beautiful, are still there.
Just like his frightening bestiary - hyenas, vultures, crows and other black cats - who sometimes make his models look like sinister two-headed creatures.
Éric Lacan knows how to arouse unease.
The sharp objects which penetrate the spine of the young woman in
Plein le dos
(third degree, we were warned) evoke the three pairs of scissors which cross the face of another silhouette a little further.
Worrisome, suggestive?
Above all, they remind us that Lacan's art is cutting.
A fine cut, with a sharp stylus, with which he scratched the canvas of
Best Song to Listen to When You're Buried Alive
.
We get lost in this hypnotic and sensual tondo, with a dynamic composition and large flat areas of white.
Both balanced and lively, this is arguably one of the artist's most accomplished works.
One also feels there the vital impulse which consumes Lacan, in a burning which does not seem close to being extinguished.
Open Space Gallery. 16, Boulevard Richard Lenoir. 75011 Paris. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
https://www.openspace-paris.fr/
Cinema, theater, music ... The student journalists of
IPJ, the Practical Institute of Journalism of the University of Paris Dauphine
, offer their perspective on cultural news.
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