BRUSSELS.- For the second time in Brussels,
LKFF Art & Sculpture Projects presents a series of unique painted tapestries by French artist Lucien Murat, winner in 2015 of the Arte / Beaux-Arts magazine Prize.
Lucien Murat (born 1986) is fascinated by the concept of the end of the world, its representations and its impact on the “collective unconscious”. His canvases are a patchwork of carefully chosen old-fashioned classic decorative tapestries one could find in each grandmother’s home in France. Under his paintbrushes, they are transformed into immense colorful tapestries, questioning the fantasized grandiose of chaos, constantly flirting between absurd and grotesque. His creations, no doubt cathartic, allow us to defuse our tensions, get rid of our aches by shamelessly questioning the fears and anguishes of humanity.
From the background made of recognizable soft woven images - kitschy pastoral or regional landscapes, popularized masterpieces, Victorian characters... - emerge Murat’s odd creatures. Far from being wallflowers, these chimera’s have a life and universe of their own, born from the artist’s fascination for the grandiose of chaos. By blending classical religious icons, historical paintings, myths and legends... with today’s images born from the digital world, computer games, violent news topics, science and catastrophes, Lucien Murat creates a new form of contemporary mythology. His paradoxal universe illustrates how fears anchored in the collective sub-consciousness relentlessly hustle the sweet disused canvasses (read tapestries) of our ancestors. The graphics stress the artist’s intentions of morphing old-fashioned values and confuse conventional principles and wisdom.
Following a foundation course at the Atelier de Sèvres in Paris, Lucien Murat graduated in Fine Art at the prestigious school of Central St Martins in London. The artist follows in the footsteps of caricaturists and painters of the dark romanticism, or even those of the contemporary Chapman Brothers.
An exhibition that will surely alter your dusty perception of tapestries...
On view until 3 December, 2016
