Boîte-hors-de-valise 7

Davis Lisboa, Boîte-hors-de-valise 7, 2018. Oil on linen, 40 × 40 × 3.5 cm (15.7 × 15.7 × 1.38 in).

The painting presents a closed suitcase, isolated on a neutral plane, where the form asserts itself with a quiet, contained presence. Reduced to its essentials, the image is constructed within a range of blues that unifies the scene and concentrates attention on the object.

The motif refers to Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise—the suitcase produced between 1935 and 1941 containing miniature reproductions of his works, conceived as a portable museum. Here, it appears closed, transformed into a compact volume that shifts the focus from its contents to its condition as both idea and object.

Formally, the surface is developed through layered applications of paint and a diffused light that softens contrasts. The edges remain slightly unstable, and the suitcase emerges from the background without fully settling, maintaining a subtle tension between presence and dissolution.

Integrated into the Paintings Section of Davis Museum Barcelona, the work belongs to a group focused on artists who have conceived their own exhibition systems, such as Marcel Duchamp with Boîte-en-valise, Robert Filliou with Galerie Légitime, and Marcel Broodthaers with Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles. Within this context, the painting proposes a contained image of the museum: reduced, portable, and open to interpretation.