Julien des Monstiers
Tendre Intérieur
12.09 - 31.10.2024
“A painting must escape its zeitgeist and its temporality.”
Julien des Monstiers
When art transcends time, it challenges us to rethink our understanding of both time and history. The work of painter Julien des Monstiers embodies this striking dialogue between past and present. In his first exhibition in Belgium, he asks a fundamental question: what if our linear perception of time is nothing more than a comforting illusion?
Julien des Monstiers (born 1983, Limoges) has been represented by Galerie Christophe Gaillard since 2016. After four solo exhibitions in the gallery’s Paris location, he now takes over the Brussels gallery. This monographic exhibition is a true manifesto for painting a discipline he reinvents with his unique technique, where the brush never directly touches the canvas.
Des Monstiers’ work is not just a ‘juxtaposition’ of pigments; it’s a meticulous deconstruction where each layer of paint tells a different story. At first glance, his paintings appear sculpted from the material itself, but closer inspection reveals the opposite process. He covers his canvases with layers of oil paint, then carves grooves to expose the layers beneath. Next, he paints the composition in fragments, meticulously transferring his chosen motifs, square by square, onto the canvas using transparent carriers. In this process, he deliberately sacrifices some detail, reflecting the way our memories are shaped by both what we forget and what we remember in fragments.
Catherine Wermester compares Des Monstiers’ paintings to human skin: “A fitting metaphor, as both consist of multiple layers. The transparent films he paints on accumulate in his studio, making it look more like a tannery than an artist’s space. The skin of paint is central: the thin layer, just dry or fresh enough, that the artist carefully transfers from one surface to another, revealing a new membrane underneath.” (Catherine Wermester, 2024).
Des Monstiers’ inspirations are as broad as his obsession with motifs. His paintings stand at the crossroads where references to the great masters of art history meet elements of pop culture. As Hanna Baudet notes, “His work carries traces of a past that is both intimate and universal. He enjoys blending these traces with invented memories. His seemingly timeworn canvases, as though ravaged by time, become witnesses to imagined lives. Through this reimagining of art history, Julien des Monstiers’ painting becomes a form of exo-fiction.”
Currently, Julien des Monstiers’ work is also featured in two major French institutions: Château de Chambord (until November 3, 2024) and Suquet des Artistes in Cannes (until September 22, 2024). His work has pre- viously been exhibited in public institutions such as MO.CO, Montpellier (2023); Collection Lambert, Avignon (2019); Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris (2015); and Le Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014).
