Gérard GAROUSTE (born in 1946) The Indian Labyrinth,... Lot 50

Gérard GAROUSTE (born in 1946) The Indian Labyrinth, 1997 Acrylic on sewn canvas, three elements, signed and numbered R16A32 on the left side. Laid later on a steel frame. 290 x 650 cm PROVENANCE: - Linden Corso, Berlin. - Sale Pierre Bergé et associés of 27/04/2005. BIBLIOGRAPHY : - Gazette de l'Hôtel Drouot n°14 of 8/04/2005, reproduced page 65. Note: special order for the Linden Corso in Berlin. We thank Mrs. Stéphanie de Santis of the Studio Gérard Garouste for the information she kindly provided. "When he painted this beautiful triptych in his vast studio in Marcilly-sur-Eure, Gérard Garouste was in his "mythological" period, searching for themes in The Divine Comedy while listening to Tabula Rasa by Arvo Pärt, an Estonian composer who mixed Gregorian and postmodern musical research. His paintings, such as "Le Labyrinthe-Indienne", are impossible to read because they obey a process of memory and recovery of buried memories. Every civilization, according to him, has its own mythology: its ancient history is mixed with its dreams and legends. This fiction that merges with reality is very close to a truth, but this truth is only an equivalence. If Garouste paints in this way, it is because one cannot say the essential with words. "The Indian Labyrinth" is a magnificent example of Garouste's certainty that painting is first and foremost a substitute discourse. Mythology, like painting, is discourse that is there in place of another that cannot be uttered." Jean-Luc Chalumeau, February 2023