Gaël Davrinche appropriates the portrait made of George Washington by the American artist Robert Field in 1800, after a painting by Gilbert Stuart of 1795 - a portrait known the world over because it features prominently on the American one dollar bill. He has created 101 versions of the portrait in the form of monotypes - a printing technique between engraving and painting - all faithfully reproduced here. This accumulation reveals the pictorial work of the artist, his personal way of distancing himself from the subject and the symbol in order to attack the problems of “Contemporary Painting”: the artist’s relationship with technique, with dexterity - between arrogance and irreverence - and the reference to the History of Art - between love and hatred. Frontiers become blurred: multiple unique / unique multiple, well painted / badly painted, beautiful / ugly...
Gaël Davrinche undermines, roughs up, twists an exercise in style (the portrait of a famous person) to transform it into “an experience of painting”. His endeavour takes on its full meaning in this edition, and leafing through these pages makes for an exhaustive and unusual reading.