Thomas Broomé — Not to Touch the Earth — Bendana | Pinel Art Contemporain Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: May 4 → June 15, 2013

The latest works of Thomas Broomé are inspired by Andy Warhol and in particular from the 1988 Sotheby’s auction of Warhol’s estate and art collections where over ten thousand lots were sold.

What do we know about Andy Warhol? The paintings of Broomé confront us with an image of unknown figure of Andy Warhol or maybe we should call him by his real name here: Andrew Warhola. Through these canvases Broomé takes us into a private world of his New York residence. By way of a set of colored lines, characteristic of Broomé’s work, he recomposed almost obsessively, the inhabited room — bedroom, TV lounge — of Andy’s Victorian style palace, the contrary of what we would imagine to be the residence of the pop art icon. A rare artificial light present in most of broomé’s painting creates a form of distance in regards to the subject. Thomas Broomé also gives us a personal interpretation of his perception of Warhol’s personality through two writing filled canvases, soul and touch me.

Broomé questions the concept of Warhol’s collection with Lots, an installation containing small format paintings on a table, inspired from the images from the Warhol’s auction catalogue.

To conclude; similar to the light of the impressionists, an astonishing light box painting made up of “led” lamps, shows a loop of a moth twirling around an electric lightbulb.

The gallery also presents a series of color lithographs in color, made by Broomé in 2011-2012 during his residency stay in the property of Ingmar Bergman on the island of Fårö in Sweden, as well as the final touch, Wanderer, a video made during the same residence.