Robert Filliou 36 (Verboden)

Drawing on key references from art history, the painting constructs a hybrid, imaginary portrait that brings together elements from works by Robert Filliou, Paul Cézanne, and Marcel Broodthaers to explore the idea of the artist-conceived museum. A performative gesture is translated into an unusual pictorial structure, where figure, color, and veiled text coalesce into a singular image.

As part of The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona, the work is situated within a genealogy that includes Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise, Filliou’s Galerie légitime, and Broodthaers’ Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles. Within this framework, the painting reflects on artistic autonomy and institutional critique, operating simultaneously as image and conceptual device, where formal clarity intensifies its critical depth.

Original · Signed · Certificate

€1,140

Product Details

Davis Lisboa, Robert Filliou 36 (Verboden), 2018. Oil on linen, 50 × 50 × 3.5 cm (19.7 × 19.7 × 1.38 in).

Three key references from art history inform the construction of this painting, which is part of The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona—a section of a contemporary art museum conceived as a readymade sculpture, digital archive, collective artistic project, and cultural entity recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya. Within this framework, the work aligns with a tradition of artists who have redefined the museum as form—among them Marcel Duchamp, Robert Filliou, and Marcel Broodthaers—challenging its institutional boundaries.

The image takes as its point of departure the central figure in Filliou’s Autoportrait bien fait, mal fait, pas fait (1973), where a paper hat, designated as the Galerie légitime, operates as a portable gallery, shifting the notion of the museum toward the body and gesture. This is set in dialogue with Paul Cézanne’s Le Garçon au gilet rouge, in which emotional intensity, structure, and color achieve a sustained equilibrium. A third axis emerges through a photograph documenting Broodthaers’ performative action at Le Coq, whose statement—“Streng verboden op werken te gaan”—introduces a direct critique of institutionalization and the conditions of artistic labor.

Within this context, the painting proposes a reflection on artistic dissent as both a historical condition and a contemporary possibility. It resonates with works such as Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise, Filliou’s Galerie légitime, and Broodthaers’ Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles, articulating a practice that reconfigures the relationship between artwork, author, and institution. The image thus asserts itself not only as representation, but as a precise formulation of the museum understood as form, gesture, and critical space.