Galerie Nathalie Obadia is delighted to host a solo exhibition of Belgian artist Sophie Kuijken in Paris, represented by the gallery since 2014.
Passionate about old master and modern art from a very young age, Sophie Kuijken aims to develop a body of work that is personal, far removed from imitation. After studying painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Art in Ghent (K.A.S.K.) in 1988, the artist spent twenty years isolated in her studio, painting, locked away from prying eyes. This radical approach was accompanied by a complete break with the art world, exhibitions, newspapers and magazines that could influence her work as an artist. It was not until 2011 that her paintings were revealed for the first time. The artist met Joost Declercq (former director of the Dhondt Dhaenens Museum), who, awed by the virtuosity of her works, decided to give her a solo exhibition at the museum.
The present exhibition brings together a selection of never-before-seen oil paintings and drawings on plaster, most of which are shown to the public for the first time. The works on display are a continuation of the artist’s research on portraiture, testifying to her fascination with faces and gazes. A persistent mystery clings to the depicted figures, who look at once foreign and familiar, even though it is quite impossible for us to have come across them before. The portraits are chimeras, constructed from multiple photographic fragments. In an ultra-contemporary approach to painting and drawing, the artist groups together, cuts and superimposes images of legs, eyes, fingers and accessories she gleans from the internet. Subtle details betray the process with which she arranges these unexpected compositions: an unusual skin tone, abnormally long fingers or an atypical pose -such as the newborn’s crossed legs -destabilize the viewer’s gaze. These anonymous figures, built from scratch, are an original counterpoint to the history of portraiture, which has always been intrinsically linked to a live model. The painted subjects, drowned in a digital flux, now anchor themselves at the heart of the works for what seems like forever.
These temporal discrepancies are reflected in the creative process behind the works on display. Sophie Kuijken’s drawings on plasterboard give her a much greater spontaneity of gesture than her oil paintings, which are created by superimposing thin layers of paint. Despite their disparity, ‘‘the two go hand in hand and influence each other,’’ declares the artist. One must think of them as ‘‘one big family.’’
Art history runs through the faces, bodies and backgrounds of the works. In her oil paintings, light, precise brushstrokes are applied to the wood panel, creating morphological deformations. Light emerges from fabrics; silhouettes stretch out and raw-toned flesh elongates, recalling Renaissance Mannerism. These deformations, common in Italian painting like in the works of Parmigianino (1503-1540), suggest the ongoing transformation of the beings captured at the heart of the canvas. Chalk, pencil and watercolor drawings on plaster also distort the bodies with their fine, delicate strokes, giving the subjects a more vulnerable aspect, symbolizing the fragility of existence. There is no permanence for Man in the portraits depicted.
‘‘I do not paint its Being, I paint its Passage,’’ writes Michel de Montaigne in his Essays (1595). In rejecting the constancy of being, he asserts that the self corresponds to ‘‘a diversity of faces.’’¹ By summoning different temporalities, from the great history of painting to the contemporary world, bathed in its digital universe, Sophie Kuijken seems to echo the French philosopher, in her desire to paint the constantly changing being. Most of her mysterious figures float in an impenetrable monochrome, preventing any temporal and spatial anchoring. Each member of this great family is an allegory of the mysteries of existence. The figures rise to the visitor’s level, in a poignant face-to-face encounter, observing each other as through a mirror, reflecting each other’s double.
To mark its reopening, the Musée d’Ixelles (Brussels, Belgium) will dedicate a solo exhibition to Sophie Kuijken in 2025.
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¹Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book 3: Chapter 2 (Of Repentance)
