Marcel Broodthaers 17

Inspired by the artistic universes of Robert Filliou and Marcel Broodthaers, this painting transforms archival references into an ambiguous and subtly theatrical composition where portraiture, humor, and institutional critique converge. Influenced by the distorted portraits of George Condo, the work forms part of The Paintings Section From Davis Museum Barcelona.

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Davis Lisboa, Marcel Broodthaers 17, 2022. Oil on linen, 60 × 60 × 3.5 cm (23.6 × 23.6 × 1.38 in).

This painting brings together visual references drawn from three works associated with Robert Filliou and Marcel Broodthaers. The first derives from the portrait of Filliou wearing his folded paper hat, featured in the assemblage Autoportrait bien fait, mal fait, pas fait (1973), connected to his itinerant project Galerie Légitime. The second appropriates the profile of Broodthaers wearing a fake nose during the filming of Voyage à Waterloo (1969). The third incorporates the suspended commas from Cinéma Modèle (1970), where literary punctuation shifts toward a simultaneously visual and conceptual dimension.

The composition is reconstructed here through color, transforming archival references into an image marked by ambiguity and subtle theatricality. The painting balances humor, artifice, and estrangement through a pictorial language in which symbolic elements, fragmented forms, and facial distortions subtly recall certain portraits by George Condo. Within this context, the figure oscillates between portrait, sign, and fictional construction, maintaining a constant tension between presence and interpretation.

The work reflects on a recurring narrative within art history linked to artists who conceived their own museums as artworks, including Boîte-en-valise by Marcel Duchamp, Filliou’s Galerie Légitime, and Broodthaers’s Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles. In this context, Davis Museum Barcelona continues this lineage as a conceptual museum, digital archive, portable collection, and collective artistic project officially recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The painting forms part of The Paintings Section From Davis Museum Barcelona, the museum’s only section dedicated to the circulation of artworks. Executed in oil on linen, the square format subtly alludes to the cubic geometry of Davis Museum Barcelona, reinforcing the relationship between painting, art history, and the museum understood as a work of art.