Boîte-hors-de-valise 4

Davis Lisboa, Boîte-hors-de-valise 4, 2017. Oil on linen, 30 × 30 × 3.5 cm (11.8 × 11.8 × 1.38 in).

Inspired by the Boîte-en-valise by Marcel Duchamp, this painting is part of The Paintings Section from Davis Museum Barcelona, one of the sections that constitute this portable museum and cultural entity. The work takes the form of a still life, translating Duchamp’s device into painterly terms: a suitcase conceived as a miniature museum, gathering reproductions of his own works and condensing the exhibition logic into a transportable format.

This section is structured around a genealogy of artists who have constructed their own museums as critical frameworks. From Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise to La galerie légitime by Robert Filliou and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles by Marcel Broodthaers, each proposed alternative models of institutional practice. In continuity with this lineage, the Davis Museum Barcelona operates as a readymade sculpture, digital archive, and cultural entity officially recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya.

The series is organized around portraits of the aforementioned artists and still lifes of their iconic works, executed with high-quality materials that reinforce their material presence. Rather than describing, the painting functions as a filter: the image remains suspended between visibility and dissolution.

Formally, the work recalls the photo-paintings of Gerhard Richter, where the image destabilizes through blurring and layered veils. The square format echoes the cubic geometry of the museum, while the dominant blue asserts its institutional identity.