Untitled 1963

Martial Raysse has made this small painting using neon colors and dense textures. I can imagine him, brush in hand, deciding where to put that blob of fuzzy pink, not quite on the nose. What’s that about? It reminds me of some of Picabia’s oddball portraits or those weird Giuseppe Arcimboldo faces made out of fruit. This work seems like a painting and assemblage, but it is also a kind of cultural commentary—a statement, perhaps, about image culture and the way we perceive beauty. I can see the influence of Pop Art in the way Raysse takes a fairly simple portrait and amps up the colours to the point where it almost vibrates off the canvas. The fluorescent colors—acid green and electric blue— feel so contemporary even though he made this a while ago. Artists are always responding to each other, picking up on ideas, and remixing them into something new. This piece, in its own way, speaks to the ever-evolving conversation that is art history.