The remedies for the worst diseases are not always found in pharmacy.
[…] There have never been wizards on this earth, but their power has always existed for those whom they have been able to cajole into believing them such.
Giacomo Casanova, History of My Life, 1789–1798 (t. I, vol. 1, chap. I)
Casanova, the new exhibition by Thibault Hazelzet at the Galerie Christophe Gaillard, celebrates the return of summer. Under the patronage of Giacomo Casanova, the writer of a thousand masks, now doctor, now soldier, abbot, public letter-writer, violinist, magician, libertine, gambler, financier, spy, dancer, lover, seducer, captain of industry, adventurer… the exhibition invites us to celebrate and calls for a return to spontaneous freedom and the blithe voluptuousness of the Venetian man of letters.
A painter, sculptor, ceramicist, and photographer, manipulating materials with alacrity, this year Thibault Hazelzet has returned to his initial medium: painting. After presenting several series of photographic prints (Babel, 2007; Narcisse, Danaé, 2008; La Guerre, L’Orage 2009; Autoportraits, Soldats, 2011) more recently associated with major sculptures (La Parabole des aveugles, 2012; L’Atelier, Calais, 2014) assuming masterful autonomy (Demoiselles and Vagabonds, 2015–2017) and striking up a dialogue with drawing and painting (as in his most recent exhibition Mars et la Méduse, 2017), today he presents an ensemble of paintings and sculptures in a new style, thus giving his work a remarkable new lease on life.
© Thibault Hazelzet, Adagp, Paris, 2020 / © Video: Damien Guicheteau.
