Marcel Broodthaers 22 (FIG 1)

From a conceptual perspective, this painting draws inspiration from a frame in Marcel Broodthaers’ film «La Pluie (Projet pour un texte)», created in 1969. This iconic, experimental work captures Broodthaers writing with a dip pen on a sheet of paper in the rain, causing the text to dissolve as the water falls. The film offers a meditation on the transformation of literature into painting, the ephemerality of art and writing, and a critical reflection on the permanence of artistic expression. Broodthaers employs meteorological and natural elements as metaphors for the inherent fragility of communication and of art itself.

From a formal standpoint, this painting draws upon the visual language developed by Equipo Crónica, a Spanish Pop Art collective founded in Valencia in 1964 by Rafael Solbes, Manolo Valdés, and Juan Antonio Toledo. Renowned for merging Pop Art with classical art, Equipo Crónica reinterpreted masterpieces from art history, establishing a visual dialogue between past and present, infused with irony and social critique.

I hope that viewers will understand that these paintings not only evoke a dialogue with art history but also explore a narrative centered on artists who, like Broodthaers, created their own museums: «Boîte-en-valise» by Marcel Duchamp, «Galerie Légitime» by Robert Filliou, and «Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles» by Marcel Broodthaers. My contribution to this lineage is the creation of the Davis Museum in 2009.