Robert Filliou 37 (van Laack)

This imagined portrait of Robert Filliou brings together references to his Galerie Légitime and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles by Marcel Broodthaers. The central faceless figure introduces a quiet tension, shifting the playful logic of Fluxus toward a more introspective register.

The composition is structured through objects, a child’s piano, and the recurring presence of folded hats, forming a system of signs where memory, identity, and avant-garde traditions converge. The work unfolds as a compact, open image in which references are integrated without becoming fixed, maintaining a precise balance between form and meaning.

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€1,750

Product Details

Davis Lisboa, Robert Filliou 37 (van Laack), 2024, oil on linen, 80 × 80 × 3.5 cm (31.5 × 31.5 × 1.38 in).

This imagined portrait of Robert Filliou is constructed from fragments associated both with the Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles by Marcel Broodthaers and with Galerie Légitime, conceived by Filliou as a portable mode of exhibition. Through a restrained surrealist language, the work reactivates the playful and critical dimension of his practice, while introducing a more controlled and tensioned atmosphere. At its center, a faceless figure lends the scene an unsettling presence, suspending fixed identity and opening a space that invites introspective viewing.

This figure operates as a point of convergence between personal memory and art history. References to Brazilian Blackness and Indigenous heritage are not rendered explicitly but embedded within the image, shaping its internal logic. In doing so, the painting moves beyond a strictly European framework toward a broader cultural field, while maintaining a rigorous pictorial structure with echoes of the Spanish Baroque.

The composition is organized through symbolic elements. On the left, a cluster of objects recalls Galerie Légitime and Filliou’s portrait in Autoportrait bien fait, mal fait, pas fait. At the center, a child’s piano alludes to its appearance in the Section Cinéma of the Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles. Folded hats, distributed between the figure and the foreground, extend the notion of a mobile institution, where display and circulation converge.

Rather than quoting its references, the painting absorbs them into a continuous visual system. Past and present remain in tension, sustaining an ongoing dialogue with avant-garde practices. The result is a compact, layered image in which symbolic elements cohere without closure, preserving an open field of interpretation.