I ART TOP SPRING ART EXPOSITIONS

By Nicole Laffont

THE WORLD AS SEEN BY AMY SHERALD AT THE HAUSER & WIRTH IN MONACO

This is our time portrayed in large-size formats. The world as it is, as it should be, the way we build or foresee it. For the first time ever in Europe, we get captivated by Amy Sherald’s art. One of the most famous American portrait artists, her career was propelled by the portrait of Michelle Obama in 2018. The first lady of the United States wearing a geometric-patterned dress evokes Mondrian’s style. Beautiful and reassuring, she has assumed a non-academic pose. The portrait is not only stunning in itself, but with a certain social and political context behind.

Amy Sherald’s art is special indeed. Her works hanging on immaculate picture rails of the superb Hauser & Wirth gallery in the heart of

Amy Sherald For love, and for country, 2022 Oil on linen

312.4 × 236.2 cm / 123 × 93 in © Amy Sherald Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Photo : Joseph Hyde

Until April 15

Monte-Carlo stand out for their rare purity and power. Some of them were lent by the world’s largest museums, like this image of a boy about to go down on a toboggan. He looks away, confident, sure of himself, ready for the future.

Amy Sherald Deliverance, 2022 Oil on linen

Overall: 275.4 × 631.1 × 6.4 cm/ 108 3/8 × 248 1/2 × 2 1/2 in © Amy Sherald Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Photo : Alex Delfanne

The Afro-American community is omnipresent in Amy’s art, opening a vast space for reflection on the theme of “The World We Make”. It is as if we are touching those faces with our glance, so real are they. Her portraits evoke a number of references from the history of art. For example, a photograph that went around the world in 1945 following the victory against the Nazis. This is a famous kiss caught on the spot by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt in the middle of crowded Times Square in New York. In Amy Sherald’s interpretation, it is attributed to a homosexual couple standing out against a hyperrealistic celestial blue. This is a way to place an iconic image back in time and to proclaim the right to love for all. Each painting calls for us to see it in a different way. The bodies portrayed are not black, but rather painted in soft and luminous shades of gray. The eyes seem empty and yet stare at us with an overwhelming intensity. The world that we build first and foremost requires to be envisaged from a different angle.

Amy Sherald. The World We Make. Hauser & Wirth Monaco One Monte-Carlo, 1 Casino Square, Monaco