Robert Filliou 34

This painting is part of the “Paintings Section of the Davis Museum Barcelona”, one of the various sections that comprise this conceptual museum project founded by Davis Lisboa in 2009. The Davis Museum Barcelona, symbolically conceived from a ballot box transformed into a ready-made sculpture, stands as a cultural entity recognized by the Generalitat de Catalunya. It manifests as a digital archive, a collection of small-format contemporary artworks, a collective art project with no commercial intent, and a platform primarily disseminated through social media.

The painting takes as its starting point a black-and-white photograph of Robert Filliou (Sauve, France, 1926 – Les Eyzies, France, 1987), an artist associated with the Fluxus movement, depicted wearing his work “Galerie Légitime” (1962) on his head. This mobile art gallery, fashioned from a folded paper hat, was exhibited during the “Defrosting the Frozen Exhibition” held at the Misfits Festival in London in 1962. The image serves not only as a visual reference but also as a symbol of a critical stance toward established art institutions, linking to a genealogy of artists who have founded their own museums, from Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise to Marcel Broodthaers’ Musée d’Art Moderne, Département des Aigles.

Formally, the painting draws inspiration from the Cubist language of Pablo Picasso, where tensions between figuration and abstraction are interwoven.

I chose oil on linen as my preferred medium not only for its technical versatility but also for its historical weight, its capacity to articulate complex images and ideas, and its resonance with European pictorial tradition. I use only the finest materials: linen canvas, Old Holland oil paints, Talens mediums, and varnishes, ensuring the quality and durability of each piece.