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9 - Grégory DERENNE La Cité - 2012 Oil on black canvas 73 x 116 …
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Estimate €4,000 - €6,000
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Description
Grégory DERENNE La Cité - 2012 Oil on black canvas 73 x 116 cm Oil on canvas 28.74 x 45.66 in. Provenance: Galerie Bertrand Grimont, Paris Acquired directly from the latter by the current owner FR As a painter of postmodern life, TV studios and brushed steel escalators, Derenne reframes to the point of vertigo, taking an interest in the trivial and elevating it to the mysterious. These deserted passageways exude a disquieting strangeness, on the threshold of unreality. It's no coincidence, then, that his paintings are reminiscent of the crime scenes that Walter Benjamin saw in Eugène Atget's photographs, those "images that disturb the beholder; [and for which] the viewer guesses that he must seek a way in". Or perhaps a way out via a seemingly infinite staircase. Once a symbol of spiritual elevation in the obscure light of a Rembrandt, of sexual desire in Duchamp's swathes of brown and Richter's layers of grey, today's staircase reflects only the vanity of neon lights left on when all activity has ceased. Pierre-Henri Foulon, 2016 EN As a painter of postmodern life, TV studios and brushed steel escalators, Derenne reframes to the point of vertigo, taking an interest in the trivial and elevating it to the mysterious. These deserted passageways exude a disquieting strangeness on the threshold of unreality. It's no coincidence, then, that his paintings are reminiscent of the crime scenes that Walter Benjamin saw in Eugène Atget's photographs, those "images that worry the beholder; [and for which] the viewer guesses that he must seek a way in." Or perhaps a way out via a seemingly infinite staircase. Once a symbol of spiritual elevation in the obscure clarity of a Rembrandt, of sexual desire in Duchamp's swathes of brown and Richter's layers of grey, today's staircase reflects only the vanity of neon lights left on when activity has ceased. Pierre-Henri Foulon, 2016 Grégory DERENNE
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About the sale Twenty One Contemporary
Auction location
Auction time 06/04/2026 at 5:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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