Created: 2004
Medium: automobile paint on sheet metal, varnish
Size: 175 x 110 x 8cm
Pascal Pinaud has spent the last ten years reinventing abstract painting in a quest for new directions, without frames and without brushstrokes, and with incredible formal and technical originality. Using talent and humour, he reinterprets the legends of abstract painting from Malévitch to the present day.
This work is fascinating. The bold red catches the eye. Its shine is perfect. And the torrent of roses captivates the viewer.
But is this really a painting? It is, but the work has been painted without the usual tools and materials you would expect.
No gouache, oil paint or pastel has been used. Instead it was painted with industrial car paint and varnish . The title tells us exactly where the paint comes from: a tangerine-coloured Chrysler. Pascal Pinaud is a painter, yet the layers of paint on the metal surface were not painted on by the artist, but by a bodyworks painter. Perhaps abstraction is the idea behind the work.
Look at the pattern on the metal, the ones that look like red roses. The artist has been inspired by abstract ideas, but there are also patterns from more traditional fabric, marquetry, as well as architectural elements like rosettes, moulding and cornices. The composition and choice of colours are simple. The flowers are spread out in a regular fashion. Pinaud purposely breaks free of the usual techniques of the artist. The painting is smooth and without texture, but not without character.
Pascal Pinaud has painted a picture that uses the pattern in an abstract way, forgetting the use of a brush, canvas or even a metal sheet.
