at Galerie gp & n Vallois, paris
Ben Sakoguchi
Oranges • Pancartes • Cartes Postales
June 9 - july 22, 2023
Installation Photos: Margot Montigny - Photos of individual paintings: Paul Salveson
Installation Photos: Margot Montigny - Photos of individual paintings: Paul Salveson
ENGLISH TRANSLATION: For once, the word “revelation” is justified: the work of Ben Sakoguchi, which is of an exceptional intelligence of composition, was unknown in France until today. Born in 1938 into a family of Japanese origin established in California, he has been developing, since the 1970s, series of small paintings according to a very particular system. He pretends to paint advertising labels for crates of Californian oranges and slips in allusions to military, political and artistic history. The first and second world wars, which he lived locked up in a camp because of the origin of his parents; Gertrude Stein; Sonia Delaunay; Hollywood; Superman; Marcel Duchamp ; the cult of the dollar: it forgets nothing. From a distance, one is seduced by the grace of the colors posed with the precision of a miniaturist. From close, we are struck by the effectiveness of the montages, thought out by a ruthless moralist. No less remarkable are his works in four assembled paintings which have as their subject a place through time: for example, the bridges of the Seine from Impressionism to August 1944 and May 1968. •• PHILLIPPE DAGEN
CATALOGUE
Catalogue co-published by Galerie GP & N Vallois / Les presses du réel - https://www.lespressesdureel.com
• ORANGES • (catalogue co-published by Galerie GP & N Vallois / Les presses du réel)
• PANCARTES • (catalogue co-published by Galerie GP & N Vallois / Les presses du réel)
• CARTES POSTALES • (catalogue co-published by Galerie GP & N Vallois / Les presses du réel)
Catalogue co-published by Galerie GP & N Vallois / Les presses du réel - https://www.lespressesdureel.com