ART CITIES: Paris-Gideon Rubin

Gideon Rubin’s faceless portraits are inspired by photographs from old photo albums, photos of celebrities or paintings by old masters. In examining this material, the artist is seeking the type of narrative that lends itself to interpretation. The artist’s figures are intended to trigger his viewers’ memories, rather than to represent specific identities.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Galerie Karsten Greve Archive

Gideon Rubin presents his solo exhibition “Moon Above Water”, the artist wants the spectator to focus on the painting process, on the medium itself and on a few details, such as the subject’s posture or bearing. Using sandy tones, grey blues and off-whites that he applies with broad brushstrokes, Rubin also applies a little touch of red to emphasise a particular detail. Concentrating on canvas or raw linen and roughly-cut bits of cardboard, Rubin often leaves entire areas of these materials untouched so that these often become an integral part of the work, occasionally bringing motifs and letters already printed into the composition. As a young painter, Rubin produced portraits – slow, laborious and steadfastly figurative – but, over time, he became both more dexterous and more loose; able to convey the mood of a person without detailing the exact profile of their face, capturing the sense of movement rather than the exact creases in a piece of clothing. In this way, his paintings reflect something of how human memory works – all softened edges and lost details, feeling over fact. We remember things the way we wish them to be remembered – be it a person, an experience, a film or a place – and it is this trick-of-the-mind that Rubin investigates through his work. Through a process of simplifying and editing, the painter breaks each image into its component parts – blocks of colour and tone that can be reassembled as a lucid and familiar image, or something a little more ambiguous. Painting several canvases – dozens, even – at the same time, a conversation develops amongst these works-in-progress as they hang together on the studio wall. Certain affinities appear amongst the subjects – the landscapes and still lives, portraits and scenes – and narratives emerge, disintegrate and evolve through their myriad combinations. Sourced from books, magazines, films and the internet, Rubin draws his imagery from this collective memory – this bank of images that we each put into and take from – which both contains and reflects all of human history and culture. More recently, Rubin has been creating paintings from his own photographs, fleeting images and snapshots from his phone. Also included in the exhibition, are a number of canvases that were painted from life – the model in the studio – which marks a return to painting the human figure rather than a representation of it. Despite their disparate origins, the subjects are linked by the act of choosing: they each contain something that connects with the artist, expressing something of his own perspective on the world. The images are drawn together thematically too, each possessing a palpable sense of the quotidian. Rubin’s subject matter is the stuff of life: the views and vistas glimpsed from a window or on screen; the people lost in conversation or in thought; a day at the beach; the first cherries of the season.

Photo: Gideon Rubin, Stripes, 2024, Oil on linen, 95 x 110 cm (37 1/2 x 43 1/3 in), © Gideon Rubin, Courtesy the artist and Galerie Karsten Greve, Photo: Richard Ivey

Info: Galerie Karsten Greve, 5 rue Debelleyme, Paris, France, Duration: 6/7-7/9/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, https://galerie-karsten-greve.com/