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THE MAGAZINE UPCOMING AUCTIONS
15 March
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Philippe Pasqua's Aurelia
The model's gaze is direct. It even seems to defy us, raising a barrier to prevent us from getting too close. Philippe
Pasqua's way of painting is just as direct: like an archaeologist, he explores the folds and wrinkles of the skin, a fragile
layer scarred by his brushstrokes. The third person, the viewer, receives the work like a punch in the face. You like it or
you don't, but you cannot remain indifferent. While his style immediately makes you think of Lucian Freud, the
emotional force and aesthetic of his work is reminiscent of Francis Bacon. Pasqua readily acknowledges this. The artist,
fascinated by the passing of time and the inevitability of death, closely watches the transformations - the wear-andtear,
traces and wrinkles - worked by time on the human body. Pasqua does not only paint faces in close-up from
various angles, like this "Aurelia" of 2010, the star of the sale by the Paris auction house Artemisia (€15,00/20,000); he
also paints people, most often women with full figures. He cannot resist stretching them out or twisting them, like his
forerunner Edgar Degas, expressing the texture of their skin in a kind of heavy, lumpy material. Anne Foster
15 March
Joseph-André Motte: the Sixties
You may think you don't know Joseph-André Motte. But actually, you do… Parisians, at least, as they crisscross the Paris
metro, are bound to have perched their posteriors at some time or other on the shell seats decked out in flashy colours
designed by the architect/interior designer for the capital's RATP train stations (1973-1984). This hyper-resistant metal
seat is now a classic. Its creator embodied everything that was refined and comfortable about the Fifties aesthetic. An
Applied Arts student in Paris, Joseph-André Motte, along with Mortier and Guariche, belonged to the generation of
"Young Turks" who explored the new materials provided by industry after the war. His 740 chair, delivered as a kit, made
a splash at the Salon des Arts Ménagers (the home design show) in 1957, and led to a string of public commissions,
including the design of the Roissy and Orly airports in the Sixties. This presidential desk (produced by Dassas) belongs
to Motte's series of rosewood and chrome metal furniture, like the desk he designed in 1962 for the director of the SNCF.
Estimated at €25,000/35,000, this example will be on offer at Tajan auction house's Paris sale. S. P-D
22 GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL I N° 23
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