In conjunction with ‘’Swoon’’, Galerie Derouillon is pleased to announce a talk between the artist Alex Foxton and Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand, in charge of research for the Pinault Collection, on Saturday, February 17th, 2024 at 5p.m
‘’For this exhibition, Alex Foxton has mostly painted figures that could be described as positive, or at the very least, images of those guaranteeing stability in the world. Apollo, the god of light, the arts and harmony, inhabits several rooms, surrounded by other symbols of order: soldiers, sailors, all stood upright in their uniforms.
Yet there’s always a feeling of unease upon seeing them. Which is either precisely because of the awkward stiffness of the figures; or because of the curiously easy-to-digest marriage of these scenes of massacres and their seductive colours. Foxton has confided to us that many of the paintings in the exhibition were created in reference to two of his favorite works: Titian’s Flaying of Marsyas (1550-1570) and Ribera’s Apollo and Marsyas (1637), which have always haunted his imagination. […]’’
Extract from the text by Nicolas-Xavier Ferrand
Thank you to RSVP at emma@galeriederouillon.com
Saturday, February 17th, 5p.m
Galerie Derouillon,
13 rue de Turbigo
75002 Paris
Alex Foxton’s painting takes traditional images of masculinity, deconstructs their archetypes and reveals their complexity and ambiguity. Alex Foxton explores the personal history and humanity of the heroes or mythical figures that inhabit our western culture, painting a new narrative in the hollow of the history known to all. The figures depicted are stretched, torn between a calm face and an expressive body, tortuous or ecstatic, underlining the tension of each character. Alex tries to get rid of the objective and dominant gaze that shapes these virile male figures to reveal an embodied vision and to let a desire for these bodies come to life.