Musée des Aigles Modernes 18 (Keep Dry)

For this painting, I drew inspiration from three key works by Marcel Broodthaers: “Miroir d’époque régence” (1973), which explores the symbolic resonance of the eagle; a museum partition framing the piece titled “Propriété privée” (1972), installed in the “Section Publicité” of his “Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles”; and the directive “Keep Dry,” stenciled on the transport crates of the museum’s “Section XIXᵉ Siècle.” These conceptual references are interwoven here to interrogate institutional frameworks and the interplay between artistic and commercial iconographies.

I hope viewers will perceive this body of work as part of a broader art-historical narrative focused on artists who have established their own museums as both poetic gestures and political statements. Central to this lineage are Marcel Duchamp’s “Boîte‑en‑valise,” Robert Filliou’s “Galerie Légitime,” and Broodthaers’ own “Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles.”

I chose oil on canvas for its versatility and its rich legacy as a medium of critical and expressive depth. I work exclusively with the highest-quality materials: linen canvas, Old Holland oil paints, and Talens mediums and varnishes. The square format of the composition echoes the cubic geometry of the Davis Museum Barcelona. Chromatically, the work situates itself within one of three defined periods of my practice: the Grey Period (2011–2016), the Blue Period (2016–2018), and the Full Color Period, ongoing since 2019.