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  • alexis lippstreu

    quintessential

    7 December > 12 January 2013

  • presentation
  • bio
  • press review
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP042) Untitled, 2005-2006, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP049) Untitled (after Ingres' 'Mrs Moitessier standing'), 2010-2011, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP048) Untitled (after Leonardo da Vinci's 'Portraits of different women'), 2005-2009, graphite on paper, 21.65 x 28.74 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP037) Untitled (after Giorgione' 'Sleeping Venus'), 2007-2009, graphite on paper, 21.65 x 28.74 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP046) Untitled (after Leonardo da Vinci's Portrait of an 'Unknown Woman, called La belle ferronière'), 2005-2008, graphite on paper, 21.65 x 28.74 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP038) Untitled (after Masaccio's 'Crucifixion with the Virgin Mary, Saint Madeleine and Saint Jean'), 2010-2011, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP051) Untitled, sans date, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP072) Untitled (after Paul Gauguin's 'bather'), 2009-2010, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP052) Untitled (after Fra Angelico's 'Visitation'), 2009-2011, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP053) untitled (after Degas' bather), 2007-2011, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP036) untitled (after Edgar Degas' 'Racehorses'), 2011, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP050) Untitled, 2007-2010, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP054) Untitled, 2007-2010, graphite on paper, 28.74 x 21.65 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP043) Untitled (after Manet's 'Luncheon in the Studio'), 2007-2008, graphite on paper, 21.65 x 28.74 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP045) Untitled (after Manet's 'The Luncheon on the Grass'), 2009-2010, graphite on paper, 21.65 x 28.74 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP058) Untitled (after Van Gogh's 'bedroom'), 1993-1995, Coloured pencil on paper, 11.81 x 15.87 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP057) Untitled (after Van Gogh's 'Bedroom'), 1993-1995, Coloured pencil on paper, 11.81 x 15.87 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP059) Untitled (after Van Gogh's 'Bedroom'), 1993-1995, Coloured pencil on paper, 11.81 x 15.87 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP056) Untitled (after Van Gogh's 'Bedroom'), 1993-1995, Coloured pencil on paper, 11.81 x 15.87 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP064) Untitled (after Leonardo da Vinci's 'Lady with an Ermine'), 1994-1997, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP070) Untitled (after Maurice Denis' 'April'), 1993-1997, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP061) Untitled (after Leonardo da Vinci's 'Lady with an Ermine'), 1994-1997, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP069) Untitled (after Maurice Denis' 'April'), 1993-1997, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP065) Untitled (after Leonardo da Vinci's 'Portrait of Isabelle d'Este'), 1996-1997, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP055) Untitled (after Edgar Degas' 'Racehorses'), 1993-1995, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP066) Untitled (after Leonardo da Vinci's 'Portrait of Isabelle d'Este'), 1996-1997, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches
Alexis LIPPSTREU (LIP071) Untitled (after Edgar Degas' 'Racehorses'), 1993-1995, graphite on paper, 11.81 x 15.94 inches

Alexis Lippstreu (born 1972) began drawing compulsively about ten years ago. Anything he does not draw he remains silent about, and when he does express himself in response to a direct request he does so in breathy monosyllables that hang by a thread. He has never spoken about his motivations or the meaning of his creations. His autism raises his art to the level of mystery. The mystery is not, however, encumbered with the creator's discourse, as is all too often the case; it leaves a broad margin for the viewer's own projections. The invitation to project our own reading onto the work also requires us to remain circumspect, even humble, in commenting on it.

It is true that the particularity of Lippstreu's work – “recreating” paintings by old masters – seems to offer the viewer keys that are all too obvious. However, works by da Vinci, Van Eyck, Degas, Gauguin, and others, are not simply the object of infinite variations in his work, but seem somehow to have rediscovered their substance. Only the bodies and faces seem worthy of being recreated with an almost supernatural presence; their backdrops and landscapes are at best handled as structural lines, or, more often, fade into a twilight storm of pencil shading. Picasso sought to push Vélasquez's Las Meninas to the limits in a virtuoso exploration of artistic style; the simplicity of Lippstreu's drawing heightens the humanity of the masterpieces he interprets, to the point that we see them in their pure essence – their quintessence. In parallel with the present exhibition, Alexis Lippstreu's work will be on show in Liège at the MAD – coeditors of the catalogue – and the BAL, where his “recreations” of Gauguin's Sorcier d'Hiva-Oa will be displayed alongside the original.

  • Fengyi Guo
  • Alexis Lippstreu
  • exposition d'alexis lippstreu : quintessentiel 2012-2013 à paris authors in Foxoo, l'actu de Paris , November 22 2012.  
  • Dans le cerveau d'Alexis par Christian Berst et Chalet Society authors Marie de la Fresnaye in blog de Marie de la Fresnaye, December 17.  
  • le regard singulier de lippstreu authors Valerie de Maulmin in connaissance des arts, january 2013.  
  • alexis lippstreu authors Vincent Delaury in L'oeil, january 2013.  
  • alexis lippstreu, quintessentiel authors Philippe Godin in Paris Art, January 7 2013.  

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