NoguerasBlanchard, Barcelona-Madrid

«The Guernica series»

For its fourth participation in ART-O-RAMA, NoguerasBlanchard will present an intense body of work by Anne-Lise Coste which consists of twelve medium format paintings on canvas (152 x 122 cm each). Born in Marignane in 1973, Coste has exhibited widely in Europe and the US. Her fresh approach to drawing and especially her airbrush paintings have earned Coste wide recognition and inclusion in major expanded drawing exhibitions.

The works presented here are a close examination of the Guernica. By fragmenting Picasso’s masterpiece Coste faces the titan, and in a David against Goliath kind of struggle she deconstructs Guernica formally but also emotionally. Raising issues of representation and symbolism, Coste approaches Picasso’s painting character by character, deepening emotionally in each of them. Coste does not focus on the scene at large, avoiding the historical contextualization, and concentrating on the humanity contained in each representation.

A very ambitious body of work, it also stands for a challenge to the figure of Picasso, the great male Spanish artist, and a constant reference to Coste’s practice. A universal painting, Guernica holds still the passing of time – Coste seems to argue not because of painting per se but because of the deep emotions contained in it.