JEAN-PHILIPPE DELHOMME: MODEL RESTING

Perrotin is pleased to present Model Resting an exhibition of work by Jean-Philippe Delhomme.

November 23, 2024 – January 18, 2025

For the artist, the idea is not to paint a model in a traditional sense, through poses and artifice, as has occurred throughout art history, but to attempt to capture an individuality, a particular presence, usually through a “non-pose,” with the model choosing to get involved or not. This distinctive approach rejects any staging by painting directly from life, far from social constructions or mediations imposed by contemporary gazes.

Delhomme works exclusively “from life,” in the English expression, or “d’après-nature,” according to the French term, i.e., with the immediate presence of his models or the objects for his still lifes in the studio, without ever using photography or any other image sources.

As he so nicely puts it, Jean-Philippe Delhomme envisions his still lifes as “satellites of [his] portraits.” And while the formats used for his subjects vary, all these paintings share the same sustained and very contrasting chromatic scale, with deep blacks in opposition to large flat tints of blue, orange, or green, recalling the treatment of color in the paintings of Henri Matisse or Alex Katz, two artists who have a particular place in Delhomme’s pantheon.

These colorful works show us that for Jean-Philippe Delhomme painting is above all a chromatic and intellectual experience that is constantly renewed.