Marcel Broodthaers 23

This work is part of «The Painting Section from Davis Museum Barcelona», the pictorial branch of a broader conceptual art project founded in 2009. The Davis Museum is conceived as a work of art in itself—a cultural entity officially recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain—that simultaneously functions as a digital archive, a collective collection, and a site of institutional critique. Drawing inspiration from artists who established their own exhibition spaces—such as Marcel Duchamp with «Boîte-en-valise» (1935–1941), Robert Filliou with «Galerie Légitime» (1962–1963), and Marcel Broodthaers with «Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles» (1968–1972)—the museum operates as an expanded ready-made. Symbolically founded in a ballot box and primarily disseminated through social media, the Davis Museum challenges conventional boundaries of authorship, institutionality, and the circulation of contemporary art.

«The Painting Section from Davis Museum Barcelona», the only part of the project in which works are offered for sale, is structured around two thematic axes: portraits of the aforementioned artists and still lifes that reimagine their foundational works.

This particular piece is inspired by a black-and-white photograph taken in 1969, depicting Marcel Broodthaers wearing a false nose, posing in front of the rear door of a truck belonging to the art transport company “La Continentale Menkès” during the filming of his experimental movie «Voyage à Waterloo» in Brussels. The image—steeped in irony and institutional critique—functions as a performative gesture that serves as the iconographic spark for this painting.

Formally, the work appropriates the dramatic chiaroscuro of Baroque painting. The restraint of visual elements, combined with precise lighting, endows the portrait with psychological intensity and austere dignity, evoking classical traditions while reframing them through a contemporary lens.