ART CITIES: Paris-Pierre et Gilles

Pierre and Gilles have been producing works together since 1976, creating a world where painting and photography meet. Their art is peopled by their friends and family, anonymous and famous, who appear in sophisticated life-size sets the artists build in their studio. They meticulously apply paint to the photographs once printed on canvas. Accomplished image creators, Pierre and Gilles have built up an extraordinary contemporary iconography on the frontier between art history and popular culture.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Daniel Templon Gallery Archive

Pierre et Gilles latest exhibition “Nuit électrique”, underscores the duo’s longevity, the role they play as portraitists of the era and pioneering explorers of LGBTQIA+ questions. Nevertheless, when we reach the point of thinking we know Pierre et Gilles by heart, they inevitably manage to surprise us. Their new paintings, created over the last two years, show us the artists laughing at their iconic status with a gallery of nocturnal, off-beat portraits. In 1976 the couple formed by photographer Pierre and painter Gilles began to develop a unique language where references to pop culture and art history rub shoulders, resulting in a marvellous, subversive, unusual and engaged body of work. Their new, previously unseen series is haunted by a synthetic neon glow, infused with the light of the underworld and artificial paradises. Euphoric nostalgia for the heyday of the Palace, the mythical Paris nightclub they are so frequently linked to, or disenchantment with a world where all the battles have possibly been won? Pierre et Gilles populate the works with some of their favourite characters: sailor, angel, rascal and urchin. Characters who are placed in undefined, shady spaces which could be a nightclub, fairground or cabaret. Their models, some naked, some tattooed, couples in love and disheartened singles, form a seductive, joyful and vaguely unsettling throng. In the midst of this gay, trans, cross-cultural youth, Pierre et Gilles put two self-portraits into the mix. One, imbued with solemn melancholy, shows them as separate. The other depicts them as lively retirees in an old-fashioned picture-postcard setting. Playing on the ambiguities of different registers, Pierre et Gilles lay claim to their camp universe with a good dose of humour. They are also implicitly portraying a shadowy world, a depiction oscillating between optimism and disillusion. As a counterpoint, Pierre et Gilles unveil two portraits of their long-standing muses: Amanda Lear as a boulevard theatre actress, and Isabelle Huppert as a majestic Mary Stuart. The portraits provide a contrast that spotlights the originality of the new way Pierre et Gilles are working with light. The use of harsh artificial lighting that never dims but transfigures characters is one of the most radical aspects of their recent practice. It can be read as a powerful metaphor for resistance to the passing of time that levels everything, existences as well as combats. What degree of benevolence has the LGBTQIA+ community succeeded in garnering after over half a century of societal progress? What place and consideration is there today for people on the margins of society?

Photo: Pierre et Gilles, Over the Rainbow (Nassim Guizani et Lukas Ionesco) [detail], 2023, Ink-jet photograph printed on canvas and painted, 116 x 58 cm – 62 x 46 in., © Pierre et Gilles, Courtesy the artists and Daniel Templon Gallery

Info: Daniel Templon Gallery, 28 rue du Grenier Saint-Lazare, Paris, France, Duration: 3/9-26/10/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.templon.com/