Le Portrait

In his latest series Speedy Graphito recreates another common theme of art history – the portrait. His paintings and works on paper of the series Le Portrait are focused three iconic portraits Girl with a Pearl Earring by Jan Vermeer, Odalisque by Natale Schiavoni and A Young Girl Reading by Fragonard. Speedy Graphito is well known for his immaculate paintings which represent concepts and thoughts on globalization, art marketing and the art market. But also the omnipresence of images, pictograms and codes of collective memory are a crucial part of his works.

Let’s have a closer look at Speedy Graphito’s La Femme au chapeau (2022). The initial portrait that sets the base for the scene is Odalisque (1845) by Natale Schiavoni. Schiavoni (1777-1858) was a successful painter and excellent engraver. He became particularly famous for his erotic girl figures, which he elegantly painted in half-length. In Speedy Graphito’s interpretation the girl with the hat suddenly dissolves and as a result the new coloring of the hat resembles more the image of a madonna surrounded by a halo. These exceptional paintings reference many more iconic artists and their artworks throughout history such as: Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1964, Paul Cézanne, A Table Corner, between 1895 and 1900, Pablo Picasso, The Studio, 1955 (Tate Modern), Joan Miró, The Pink Dusk Caresses the Woman and the Birds, 1941 (The Menil Collection) and Roy Lichtenstein, Red Apple and Yellow Apple, 1983.