For this second major exhibition in ten years – his retrospective at the Pompidou Center took place in 2014 - Martial Raysse displays canvases of striking density. Three large-scale works, flirting with the ambition and drama of history painting, engage in dialogue with a series of allegorical female figures. Among them are Le Grand Jury (2022), La Peur (2023), four meters long and imbued with reminiscences of the war in Ukraine as well as the artist’s childhood memories, and its fairy-tale counterpart La Paix (2023), a five-meter long canvas unveiled at Art Basel Paris last October.

During these years of research, Martial Raysse engaged in a sustained dialogue with the Old Masters. La Peur et La Paix thus resonate with the panels Picasso designed for the chapel at the Château de Vallauris, while paying homage to other tutelary figures such as Jean Fouquet and Nicolas Poussin.

The cohorts of half-radiant, half-bitter faces that now populate the gallery space testify to a keen sense of composition and constant attention to the symbolism of gestures. A black cat, a flower-covered hand, a dagger lurking in the shadows: with Raysse, every detail counts. He takes us from one narrative to another, multiplying the levels of interpretation and revealing, in successive layers, the tensions and challenges of the contemporary world.

Internationally renowned, Martial Raysse’s work continues to surprise, reinvent itself, and leave its mark on art history. By presenting these recent works today, Templon highlights the latest achievements of an artist who has never stopped observing, experimenting, and revisiting his craft. Conceived far removed from fads and injunctions, his luminous apocalypses speak of the farce, and sometimes the chaos, of a humanity in motion.