RAMON AZUL (1957) - Deux dorment, deux regardent

RAMON AZUL - Mixed technique: print with pigment ink, brush-applied varnish by hand, for the durable protection of the work.

The canvas is divided into four squares that reproduce the same seated nude body, knees drawn to the chest, arms closed around the legs. In the top left, ultramarine skin and short hair on a gold background, the head resting on the arm, eyes closed, a dark cord tied at the ankle. In the top right, the same blue barely darkened on a carmine background, long black hair, eyes looking toward the viewer. In the bottom left, a turquoise figure on a violet background sleeps, hair tied. In the bottom right, a brick-colored skin on a bright blue background, one hand raised to the hair, eyes open.

The same gesture returns from one square to another without ever resolving: two figures sleep, two maintain the gaze. The painting does not show four people but four states of a single fold, and it is the backgrounds, more than the skins, that separate them. It does not play at nudity; it plays with what the body keeps closed.

Ultramarine for the two upper bodies, turquoise and brick for the lower ones; gold, carmine, violet and vivid blue for the backgrounds, laid in saturated flat fields with no floor or decor. The modeling of the bodies is smooth and blended, without tool marks; the backgrounds, however, preserve their brushstrokes and the texture of the canvas. The midnight blue band encircling the grid is the most worked area, swept with light strokes at the top.

Mixed technique: print with pigment ink, brush-applied varnish by hand, for the durable protection of the artwork.
Varnish applied by hand, for the depth of the blues and the durable protection of the artwork.
Support: premium canvas stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang.
Format: 40 × 40 cm.
Signed RAMON AZUL · Galerie Labo Joconde / Atelier Joconde · authenticity certificate provided.

RAMON AZUL is one of the creations bringing together artists Le Yack, Neo Pablo and Popsan within Atelier Joconde, a family studio where three sensibilities coexist: neo-realism, pop and free figuration. Azul, meaning blue in Spanish, under this name the Atelier paints only one thing: a naked seated body, knees drawn to the chest, arms closed around the legs, head resting where it finds support, eyes sometimes closed, sometimes fixed on the viewer. The skin is ultramarine blue, green, turquoise or brick, the background a saturated flat field: color does not describe the body, it states its state, in the spirit of Picasso’s Blue Period and the arbitrary color of the Fauves. The modeling remains smooth and sculptural, volumes full, the silhouette closed in an oval that occupies almost the entire canvas. When the same figure reappears in a grid, each square reinterpreted in another range, it is the serial repetition of pop that takes over and makes an intimate gesture a motif.

Each work is a unique piece.
Instagram @atelierjoconde.

Keywords: RAMON AZUL, blue nude, folded body, quadriptych, Blue Period, saturated color field, serial pop figure, ultramarine, turquoise, terracotta, French contemporary art, Le Yack, Atelier Joconde