Ramon Faura at the Collections de Saint-Cyprien
By Ellen Turner Hall
Haunting. Intriguing. Engaging
. Three adjectives that spring to mind after viewing Faura’s works at Saint-Cyprien.
You are in the dark, both literally and figuratively. The spotlit paintings are displayed on black walls with great pools of shadow between them. The subjects of the canvasses are obscure, the paintings mostly untitled. The more you look, the more mysterious markings appear to call into question your first impression.
What is clear is that you are in the hands of a formidable artist, whose work explores past and present, interior and exterior, dream and reality. While the subjects of his portraits may be fixed in space, the background pulses with colour, movement and ghostly demarcations suggesting their memories or thoughts. In the portrait of the drinker of Banyuls, eyes downcast, fist in mouth, one wonders what could have caused such anguish.
Faura paints a boy holding a cat, a boxing glove at his side, soft fur contrasting with hard leather. Then he complicates the story by presenting two similar portraits in the background. The boy at other stages in his life? The boy being watched over? Or being spied upon? The artist’s twist on the traditional still life with fruit is a portrait of two children peering over the edge of a table, eyeing the pears and apples just out of reach.
People are often shown cradling a pet, but rarely each other. A few canvasses show couples, but turning their backs to each other, as if communication were impossible. A chess board is another recurring motif. Yet even there, the black and white squares are empty or pieces are isolated like castaways adrift on separate islands. Perfectly reflected in Faura’s multi-layered universe is the complexity of our own.
The exhibition runs from 11 October to 31 December 2024. MORE DETAILS