JEAN-PHILIPPE DELHOMME

The malleable studio space allows the painter to create changingmoods and atmospheres through basic props and colour backgroundstaped to the walls. The compositional setup is simple: minimalstaging and instructions regarding the postures of the models, whowear their own clothes. The latter exhibit a sense of neutrality,similar to the subjects of Warhol’s screen tests, the famous shortfilms of near-motionless individuals in front of simple backdrops thatWarhol initially called film portraits. In a similar vein, Delhomme’sfocus on the reciprocal gaze undercuts the typical male painter-model dynamic. The models are usually painted looking directly intothe painter’s eyes, creating a sense of distance and mutualquestioning where no answer is expected, a situation RolandBarthes would describe as a suspended moment of ‘the neutral.’

For the series at Perrotin, Delhomme relies on a dark, almost blackbackground as the only decor. It has a greater depth of field thanthe brighter colors used in other portraits, which are more surfacethan depth. Delhomme selected this specific ambiance for theTokyo show as a homage to 17th-century Dutch portraiture, wherethe models also appear against dark-toned backgrounds. It is alsoa reference to Junichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows, a bookDelhomme encountered when he first visited Japan in the early1990s. This seminal text explores the differences in how light isperceived in Western and Japanese aesthetics. As Tanizaki argues,the concept of beauty in Japan “depends upon shadows and isinseparable from darkness.” On the occasion of the exhibition, abook of poems and black ink drawings will be published, payingtribute to Tanizaki’s aesthetic principles: “Western paper turns awaythe light, while our paper seems to take it in, to envelop it gently, likethe soft surface of a first snowfall.”

As a counterpoint to visage(s) at Perrotin, Delhomme will presentThe Studio, a selection of works displayed in the exhibition space

and windows of the Isetan department store from September 1 toSeptember 15. Exhibited alongside still-life paintings, these portraitsfeature brighter backdrops, giving the viewers a glimpse into theartist’s studio.

Press release courtesy Perrotin. Text: Lucien Terras, Paris, July 2023.