Asnaby, Painter & Sculpter

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With an artistic formation received in studios rather than in academies, Asnaby finds himself, from childhood, in front of the collections of paintings of his family and of the passionate, uncompromising and committed artists visiting the house in Paris.

 

Marked by the power of the Spanish and German painting as well as by the Russian romanticism, Asnaby defines himself as a painter rather than an artist. This difference indicates, in his opinion, a specific belonging, a companionship; it expresses his position vis-à-vis this ancient art: wanting to push its boundaries without changing the media.

 

"I have always associated painting to a dose of mystery and thought that the gift, certainly charitable, of the keys used for reading a canvas stifled its transcendence, and therefore the truth. That which spurts out of it or that which sucks us up, loses its strength." For Asnaby, painting is an interface between the mystical and the organic, an interface that it is not necessary to understand in order to be confronted in its entirety, whether this is done in one go or in stages and successive discoveries. The painting is a silent art, whose cry is internal.

 

"My itinerary (I prefer this word to theme or topic) sends us to the character of Eris, goddess of chaos, discord, war, plagues, disasters and oblivion, a mythical character of ancient Greece guiding me in my visit to the history of the world.

In many of my paintings, Eris seems to fill a void, a nothingness that nonetheless does not fill. A space, whether visible or not, permeates and tries to disturb the first approach. I paint oblivion.

From other paintings arises a plenty, an overflowing which devours space. I paint the conflicts."

 

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Asnaby and the new Objectivity.

 " Extreme aspect of human existence, the New Objectivity, without prejudices, keeps its function of unveiling and of the power of analysis; it gives up the subject of the person for the object of the history shared more or less by the human community "-Germany, 1930.

 

- "I detached myself from this German figurativ realism movement to keep only the expression of the abstract, of burning coldness and of magical visions through a cynical acuity, in a portrait of the flaws of global society."

 

   

The Pink.

It is a toxic Pink, an illusion, a mortal Pink which prevents the function of unveiling and of the power of analysis. It diverts the attention and tries to preserve at all costs its quality of makeup. The Pink creeps, spreads and devours not only the canvas, but also the space. Under the Pink, something is watching: a vital prognosis is engaged.

 

As a distraction from real contingencies, Pink disguises, covers up the way we see the world.

Toxic Pink deludes. Lethal Pink creeps,spread out, insinuates, consumes,wirlwind through our lives.

It prevents the function of unveiling and of the power of analysis It diverts the attention and tries to preserve at all cost its vertu of Make up… Roselethal is watching.