Robert Filliou 18

Davis Lisboa, Robert Filliou 18, 2018. Oil on linen, 40 × 40 × 3.5 cm (15.7 × 15.7 × 1.38 in).

The painting originates from an anonymous photograph of Robert Filliou, depicted wearing glasses and holding a cigarette. Lisboa refines this image toward an almost totemic presence, condensing the figure and reducing gesture to its essential form. Rather than a psychological portrait, it appears as a synthetic presence, positioned at the threshold between image and sign.

Within the framework of The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona, the work belongs to a body of works that articulates a precise narrative: portraits of artists who have redefined the conditions of production and display, alongside representations of works that have marked these same shifts. In this context, Filliou stands as a central figure within this lineage, in relation to La Galerie Légitime (1962–63).

As a portrait, the work establishes a direct affinity with Filliou’s position, in dialogue with Marcel Duchamp and Marcel Broodthaers, whose practices —Boîte-en-valise (1936–41) and Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles (1968–72)— reconfigure the artwork as a critical structure. Lisboa condenses this historical continuity into an image reduced to its minimal formal expression.

The square format echoes the cubic geometry of the Davis Museum Barcelona, while the monochrome blue and white palette articulates a coherent visual identity. The deliberately controlled surface sustains a precise tension between presence and distance, situating the work at a threshold between image, archive, and structure.