In the spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of...
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| From a collection of my paintings, part chance, part control. |
athid sent me an email asking what I would suggest in the
way of a painting for a restaurant they were putting together. Usually I’m
given clues, a design direction, something, but in this case I was only told:
brasserie. So, French, ok. I immediately go to the major French influence in my
work, Duchamp, and assemble a collection of my paintings for them to browse. Included
in the mix are works of my other bicycle reference which in my mind goes with
the Duchamp oeuvre though it’s not of him; it’s the canopied penny farthing
from the stylish 60s British import television summer replacement show, The Prisoner.
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| Another of my paintings in an imaginary installation. I wish. |
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| My first painting that includes the penny farthing. |
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| There it is, the Prisoner bike. |
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My recent painting for Brasserie Gigi.
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Cut to the finished restaurant, Brasserie Gigi in Charleston,
S.C. where my painting hangs just barely two weeks after first getting wind of
this project. If that’s not a rush job then you tell me what is. And it’s
remarkable. Amelia has again assembled an interior using such a deft touch that
there’s hardly any notion that it’s been decorated. And you can scarely believe
it hasn’t been there since, I don’t know, the 20s?
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| There's my painting, framed and hanging in Brasserie Gigi! |
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| Tempting, n'est c'est pas? |
Now, had been up to me I would have used the straight
up rendering of the Duchamp Bicycle Wheel for the restaurant. That'll keep them talking! But I didn't campaign hard for that idea. It’s 2014 already and our culture has not yet fully
absorbed the impact of Duchamp’s work -created in the early 20th c.!
Still I love the absurdity of The Prisoner high wheeled bike; delightful and
preposterous in equal measure and that's Duchampian.
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| My rendition of Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel. |
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| My flowery rendition of Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel |
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| It's really my painting but (le sigh) another one of my fantasy installations. |
Brasserie Gigi, where they say the oysters are exquisite.
Will someone please confirm that for me?
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| Bon au revoir, Gigi. |
