Clouds paintings

- Painting (Painting)

Benoît Maire

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The series Clouds paintings by Benoît Maire features oil on canvas works in varying format, in which the artist depicts clouds, using a variety of tools, including a spray gun, paintbrush, or palette knife. The cloud motif in this series of paintings questions the limits of abstraction by playing with the concept of pareidolia—a psychological phenomenon by which we recognize familiar shapes in landscapes, clouds, or ink stains. Through his careful composition and use of pentimenti, Maire invites the viewer to project their imagination onto these colorful clouds. Clouds are suggestive elements, made to be reproduced, interpreted as the continuity of our imagination. They are a space of projection, a space of appearance and disappearance. According to Maire, a cloud “[…] doesn’t signify but contains the weight of representation.” Some of his cloud paintings are composed around fragments of newspaper pages chosen by the artist. They reveal historical conflict, such as the moment when the United States entered World War II. These archival inserts selected by the artist for their textual elements and formal opportunities give weight to the otherwise whimsical sensibility and anchors the work from landscape painting to historical painting.

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Benoît Maire’s practice exists at the intersection of philosophy and art, thought and matter. Through a mutable approach that combines painting, installation, furniture, and video, the artist establishes an allegorical universe that focuses on the sensorial experience of an artwork and the intrinsic qualities of objects. Often referred to as a visual philosopher, the physical form that his artworks take are inspired by a range of disciplines including history, history of art, philosophy, psychoanalysis, mathematics, geometry, and mythology. Probing distinctions between culture and nature, Maire’s work elaborates on concepts proposed by canonical theorists such as Lyotard, Agamben, Bataille, and Lacan.

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Colors:

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• imagination.n.01
• representation.n.01
• landscape.n.01
• psychology.n.01
• history.n.01
• archive.n.01
• french contemporary artists