As we know, the late Serge Gainsbourg devoted an exclusive cult to the goddess painting before hanging up his brushes and becoming the brilliant jack-of-all-trades of French song who, more than thirty years after his death, continues to enchant the younger generations. Today, it is the artists who pay homage to him. Painters, sculptors, visual artists, designers or actors of urban art, they are 24 to draw his portrait on the picture rails of Yoxeone Art Gallery, both luxury boutique and place of creation opened by Sélim Gouaned, rue de la Sourdière , in the heart of Paris, in the spirit of Andy Warhol’s Factory.
Adventure – because it is! – was initiated by Roberto Battistini, the photographer who produced, in the fall of 1985, hijacked portraits of the singer, including the one that has remained in collective memory, from Gainsbourg to Dali, wide-eyed and mustaches raised to the sky. The others – Gainsbourg a gypsy with a beak or even wearing a beret… – are no less emblematic. It is from these portraits that Battistini asked established artists to write their own universe and view of the pop dandy. Under the title Gainsb’Art, the project has grown as international creators, from all generations, all countries and all universes, have joined it.
“Rue de Verneuil – Variation number 5” (A title deed to the wall of rue de Verneuil is given to the purchaser).
© Lord Anthony Cahn / Roberto Battistini
The door of Yoxeone Art Gallery not yet crossed, it is the variations of the Parisian Lord Anthony Cahn around the Rue de Verneuil that we discover through the window. Recognized for his work on the “walls” that he sculpts on different scales, the visual artist has endeavored, as usual, to capture the spirit of an emblematic place, that here of the Parisian residence of Serge Gainsbourg where should soon open the house-museum dedicated to the singer.
Created from construction materials covered with colorful posters and graffiti, reminiscent of Battistini’s portraits, the “wall” reveals itself quite differently on its interior facade, painted black, following the example of the radical color code adopted by the cabbage-headed man at home. The double-sided work is full of details, sometimes miniature, which are apprehended beyond the first glance. The icing on the cake: the buyers of the “wall”, like all the others, are rewarded with a deed of ownership in good and due form. (Note that this wall in Rue de Verneuil is on sale for 17,000 euros).
Juan Le Parc, “The man with the mad head of Lanvin chocolate”.
Juan Le Parc / Roberto Battistini
Among the other visual artists who have played the game, the German Peter Klasen, co-founder of narrative figuration, appropriates the famous Gainsbourg as Dali by sprinkling it with graphic evocations of the provocatives of the great Serge, including the unforgettable 500 francs burnt at the zippo during a television news. Further on, the Marseillais SkunkDog, faithful to his artistic signature, mixes texts, signs, materials and a dazzling chromatic palette, while Juan Le Parc masterfully embodies a bald Serge, The Man with the Crazy Head of Lanvin Chocolate. Equally striking are the moving I love you and I’m afraid to get lost woven with red thread by the outstanding knitter Anna Kache, the Cargo Culte by Stéphane Pencréac’h, and the assemblies rich in symbolism by Eric Liot. . Not to mention the self-portrait of Orlan hybridizing, rather happily, with Gainsbourg and Dali.
Stéphane Pencréac’h, “Cult Cargo”.
© Stéphane Pencréac’h / Roberto Battistini
Any tribute to Serge Gainsbourg is good to take. France knows something about it, which successively hosted the Gainsb’Art event in the Bettina, BOA, Keza and W galleries in Paris, Art to Be Gallery in Lille, then that of David Pluskwa, in Marseilles, before to welcome tens of thousands of visitors to the Sainte-Anne chapel in La Baule last summer. The long-awaited opening of the Maison Gainsbourg will undoubtedly be the next XXL stage of this timeless tribute to the carver of French song that we never stop celebrating.
Yoxeone Art Gallery, 11 rue de la Sourdière, Paris I, until November 15.
