Marcel Broodthaers 3
A portrait derived from a cropped photograph taken by Maria Gilissen, the work isolates Marcel Broodthaers’s head to intensify its presence and shift the image toward a more focused, contemplative register. The blurred surface introduces a subtle instability between photographic reference and painterly translation, suspending the figure between presence and disappearance.
Rendered in a restrained blue monochrome and square format, the painting aligns with the visual language of the Davis Museum. Part of The Paintings Section From Davis Museum Barcelona, it belongs to a series dedicated to artists who transformed institutional critique into a museographic form.
Original · Signed · Certificate
€610
Product Details
Davis Lisboa, Marcel Broodthaers 3, 2016. Oil on linen, 30 × 30 × 3.5 cm (11.8 × 11.8 × 1.38 in).
The work is based on a photograph taken by Maria Gilissen, Marcel Broodthaers’s wife, on July 11, 1970, at the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg. The original image captures a broader scene including the artist, director Piet van Daalen, and a display case associated with his Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles. From this source, the painting is constructed as a tightened crop focusing on Broodthaers’s head, isolating the figure and intensifying its presence.
The painting operates within a logic close to Gerhard Richter’s photo-paintings, placing the figure in an unstable threshold between presence and disappearance. The veiled surface does not describe but holds the image in suspension, reinforcing the critical dimension of the portrait.
The blue monochrome and square format establish a direct continuity with the visual language of the Davis Museum, echoing both its chromatic identity and its formal structure.
Integrated into The Paintings Section From Davis Museum Barcelona, the work belongs to a series in which painting and institution function as a single system. In dialogue with figures such as Marcel Duchamp (Boîte-en-valise), Robert Filliou (Galerie légitime), and Broodthaers himself, the series outlines a lineage of practices that transform institutional critique into a museographic form.
Additional information
| Weight | 2 kg |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 30 × 30 × 3.5 cm |
