I was pleasantly surprised when I learned that the Lara Vincy gallery in Paris will present a new exhibition by Jonier Marin at the start of the school year and especially surprised since this time it will be, not question marks, the axial constant of his work, but from PORTAITS.

Allow me to introduce myself: already in 1986 on the occasion of an exhibition by Raymond Hains in this same gallery, I had written a note on J. Marin, a French artist born in Colombia in 1946. Held in London, I limit myself to reproducing and commenting here on the short handwritten note which was sent to me by Marin as an invitation:

“Dear Braxton, I have decided to show at the Lara Vincy gallery in Paris next September a set of portraits. I hope to have the indulgence of the public with this attempt, given that the main subject of my research has been of another order since 1979. Most of these drawings date from the 90s. I deduce that on each face, there is a word written by the time that could very well define us. I remember this little pencil drawing at the Louvre museum on the Flemish painting side of a schoolmaster indignant, and even overwhelmed, by the chaos of his students. Why still care about portraits today? Baudelaire rightly feared that since the appearance of photography, it would be futile to try to reach the level of Rembrandt or Goya. Today, smartphones allow us to choose from several selfies, failed or not, the one that may suit us. »

I have also just received by e-mail some images of this very varied, surprising even exhibition, and I note that in these drawings, it is a “fa presto” which does not bother with any retouching. I notice that more and more artists declare themselves curators of their own work. Thus, Marin will choose a hundred drawings from his studio background to speak to us with a certain cheek, about the telluric consumption of our world contemporary.

What is his purpose in showing this set? Probably to present himself as someone who goes beyond today’s art, which has become, according to Yves Michaud, “a gaseous material”. Fundamental modesty from someone who will always have a new project to propose. I am thinking, for example, of its vertical dollar. I place his portraits in several categories: the apparent portrait, the one that represents itself to us in front of the mirror; the “philosophical” one according to Kobo Abe, the Japanese winner of the Akutagawa Prize in 1951, who in his novel The Face of the Other on page 48, asks the skull: “What was your face? ".

We must take into account that until very recently, any image represented us. With the appearance of smartphones, according to Marin, nothing means anything anymore; goodbye to the daily psychopathology of good old Sigmund. Our iconic image then becomes indefinable due to constant mutation. Ultimately, who is who? The question remains.

Another approach could be located in the imaginary self-portrait, which, ultimately, would refer to a concept of life materialized in attitudes and activities, in short, seeing ourselves with half-open eyes.

John Braxton, London, September 2023

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