CEREMONY/ SUFFOCATION (BLACK) Philippe Huart

“In Philippe Huart's art, suffering and ecstasy, extremes of human coexistence, are indeed very close. In both his paintings and his drawings, the challenge to the viewer is not just to gaze at the surface, but to venture into an unsettling second look. And here, Philippe Huart is not afraid to transgress limits or break conventions. »

Renaud Faroux

WORK

The works in the “ceremony” series refer us to the abused or afflicted body. Philippe Huart's work here is particularly linked to the "organic" of bodies. In the work Suffocation (Black), one could not say if it is the violence done to the body that causes the suffering and the negation of the spirit, or if it is, on the contrary, the psychological distress that is reflected on the self-injury and the sacrificed body.

In the diptych Extimité/Intimité, it is also with this double physical and psychic dimension that the artist plays. The concept of "extimacy", invented by Lacan, would be the movement that pushes everyone to highlight a part of their intimate life, consisting of a desire to communicate about their inner world. However, it goes beyond the idea of ​​a pure "expression" of feelings, because it enters into a process of enrichment and reinforcement of intimacy made possible via the exchanges formed with our close relatives following this sharing. According to Serge Tisseron, intimacy and extimacy are thus inseparable from self-esteem, which is built in the dialogue between the desire for intimacy and extimacy.

Sharing and modesty, expression or impression, are here revealed by the work of the artist in the detail of the skin and the flesh. The masked faces, imprisoned in a plastic bag or simply neglected, actually evoke the hidden intentions, not only of the being represented but also of the one facing him. For Philippe Huart the intention of the work does not only come from the hand of the artist. It also rests largely in the gaze of the spectators. The artist's vital need to paint these recurring hidden figures in his work, as well as his aesthetic practice based on hyperrealism, denote this fundamental desire to erase his own presence in order to grant the viewer a support for introspection. By sacrificing these naked, faceless bodies to the gaze of others, he exposes them to criticism as much as to the necessary self-acceptance. The raw reality of our carnal existence cannot however be satisfied with its physical dimension. It is up to us to endow it with a soul and offer it salvation.

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