Denis Blondel – Humanity Stripped Bare

By Caroline Canault

Denis Blondel. Selfie À La Joconde, 162 cm x 130 cm, Mixed media ( oil, ink, tempera, collages ) on canvas, 2019.

He has a feverish vision which can be read at multiple levels, where bodies are transformed and mutate. A sense of weirdness permeates the whole surface of the composition. The artist’s touch fine-tunes interference, thus further contributing to an overall sensation of disorientation.

His portraits charged with carnal expression leave few defined elements. However, within this dense and destructured balance, we can make out a few figurative references, such as a portrait of the Mona Lisa, a knife…

Denis Blondel strips bare as much as he humanizes. His work is an invitation to plumb the depths of the body and void of the soul, presence, and absence, the ephemeral, the frailty of human existence.

The obscure lights up with recurring white tonalities, conjuring up a body powdered by hues that have been imbued with a sense of nothingness. This evocation of life’s transitory character places its work within an ever-evolving motion in the same place where individual elevation and the opening of perspectives are etched out.

Leave a Reply