TRIUMPH OF THE SIGN

In Triumph of the Sign, artist Jean Charles de Castelbajac presents a series of paintings that articulate his fascination with, broadly, the tensions and synergies between high art and consumer culture, and most specifically that defining element of contemporary visual culture - the brand logo.

In a process that mirrors the production of mass-consumer goods, Castelbajac commissioned painters in China to perfectly reproduce a series of Western masterpieces, from Bronzino to Manet, and another group to paint logos on the surfaces of the copied masterpieces. The resulting works ironically embrace a flattening of hierarchies, a breakdown of distinctions and an evacuation of content. The works, therefore, are themselves perfect signs of the present moment.

Triumph of the Sign is currently on exhibit at the Paradise Row Gallery.

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