Bernard Rancillac (French, 1931-2021) "Barbara... Lot 38

Bernard Rancillac (French, 1931-2021) "Barbara d'après photo Warner", 1990 Canvas signed, dated and titled on the back with handwritten addition "Stanwyck". Height: 97 cm Width: 130 cm. Provenance : personal collection of the founder of the anti-gallery in Paris, in front of the Pompidou center from 1998 to 2018. Exhibition : Gallery of the Centre national d'arts plastiques, 34 years of passion, 25 stories, from 21 to 24 September 2007, Paris. Our painting is part of the "Cinémonde" series that began around 1985 when I discovered a package of old issues of the magazine. If cinema echoes in Rancillac's work, it is not so much the medium that interests him, but "the image that is given through the retouched photographs". Hollywood stars serve the artist's reflection. Through their representation, Rancillac questions the public: "did these idols, who commanded the climate of an era, reflect the general desire or did they serve to manage it" (Galerie 1900-2000, La Galerie de Poche, "Rancillac Cinémonde", cat. exp., Paris, 1989). This topical question remains open as the collective memory tends to erase the popular idols of a bygone era.