émigration forcée 2020

Cricorps painted "émigration forcée", which translates as 'Forced Emigration', at an unknown date using paint on canvas. Look at the way the scene unfolds through these angular marks and muted colours. I can imagine Cricorps layering down each stroke, feeling for a composition that captures the sense of displacement and uncertainty in a group of people on the move. The thick outlines remind me of early modernists. You can really sense the weight of history and the artist wrestling with how to represent it. See how the faces are simplified, yet so expressive? The artist creates a push and pull between figuration and abstraction, representation and emotional resonance. The layering of color is so crucial. It is like the artist is searching for ways to convey the human experience, transforming it through the materiality of paint. I find myself wondering about the many different ways in which painters can be in conversation. In a painting like this, we feel how artists build upon each other’s work, translating, and expanding the language of the medium.