CHARLES HASCOËT

”There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

This poignant reflection by Leonard Cohen also captures the essence of Quake, where fragility becomes the conduit for beauty. Conceived in Paris during the turbulent spring of 2025, amid global uncertainties, Hascoët’s latest works reflect a world in flux—politically, emotionally, and spiritually. “As I paint,” the artist shares, “I release the darker thoughts first, and by the end, only hope and joy remain.” The result is a vibrant collection where unease and serenity cohabit, embracing the impermanence of existence in a manner resonant with Eastern philosophy’s balance of opposites.

Animals, long recurring in Hascoët’s work, now have become central figures rather than silent companions. Among these self-aware protagonists, some are left to navigate catastrophe with quiet resilience on their own, some still embody an aspect of the artist’s psyche. Others, such as the Baby Tiger, Baby Hippo, and Snow Leopard—inspired by real encounters at the Shanghai Zoo and Ling Xiaozhe’s stories in Northwest China—ground the exhibition in warmth.

In Monkey Tree along with several smaller portraits such as Me with Bubu the Donkey where the artist still casts himself as the key figure, an unusual synchrony emerges between Hascoët and his animal companions — a shared rhythm of instinct and thought. At times, it is hard to tell who mirrors whom. The animals appear to rise from the same creative source as the artist himself, and together, they suggest a reconciliation between human and non-human life — a vision of coexistence grounded in empathy rather than dominance.

Hascoët’s practice blends the personal with the universal, anchored in the expressive power of painting—where color, form, and composition shape emotion and perception. In Floating Spinario, Hascoët deepens this exploration through gesture and motif. Reimagining the ancient Roman Spinario—the boy removing a thorn from his foot—atop a drifting iceberg, a recurring symbol in his work, he creates a scene that is both playful and precarious.

In Pink Dog, a fiery coral-pink canine secures the artist and ignites the muted tones of the seashore, complemented by fighting crabs that add wry humor and balance. “That pink dog is my salvation,” Hascoët admits, “I no longer belong to the ocean bed.”¹ Elsewhere, paintings of Hascoët with his beloved dog Simone, inspired by joyful beachside moments with her orange frisbee, radiate pure warmth and the simple happiness of companionship.

Drawn to pink, purple, and crimson — tones almost unnatural yet irresistibly luminous — Hascoët brightens the somber undertones of his dreamscapes, such as Floating Panda, Dinotopia, and Jumping Tiger, letting color itself become a passage from darkness to light, where tension softens into renewal and the shadows yield to a glimmer of hope.

Ultimately, through his intuitive metaphors and ever-evolving menagerie, Charles Hascoët transforms the unsteadiness of Quake into an exploration of resilience and connection. His work reminds us that to tremble is to live — and that through the quake, we may rediscover what it means to be tender, awake, and human.

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1.Here, the artist alludes to his 2021 solo exhibition The Deep at DUMONTEIL Shanghai, where he envisioned himself on a contemplative voyage through the depths of the ocean.