Robert Combas, one of the successful representatives of the French “Figuration Libre,” paints everything in a comic style: southern French landscapes, nudes, self-portraits and battle scenes, but also art-historical paraphrases like Guernica Foie Poulet (Guernica Chicken Liver). In his paintings, each person and object appears as a caricature-like coloured black contour drawing, supplemented with text. Genres based on aggression, action and struggle belong to one of the largest sections of popular culture, from Tom and Jerry to action movies. Combas also prefers the theme of war and violence, but as he intensifies tempers and accumulates weapons to the point of absurdity, the result is both frightening and ridiculous. In the painting made in the wake of Picasso’s Guernica, bulls dressed in sports jerseys fight each other, where Picasso is the chosen victim. “Guernica Goose Liver” is not a paraphrase, but rather a profane reflection not so much on the painting Guernica, but rather on one of the best-known works of high art and, of course, Picasso, the sacred monster of the century, the opponent who is to be defeated but unavoidable. Combas places himself in the process of art history, referring to types of representation and concrete predecessors, no matter how disrespectful or dismissive he is to them. The “common knowledge” on which his art is built is much deeper than that on which the purely popular arts are based, yet he does not refrain from using their tools – as tried and tested methods – to gain the attention of the public.
Krisztina Szipőcs
