Raphaël Barontini : Portrait pasted at the time

Raphaël Barontini's stylistic universe is unique. A rare thing. An artist's coquetry, his pompous imagery made of harmonious collages of heterogeneous motifs always melts into the mould of the portrait. The better to dynamite the rules of the genre from within. As for the colours, taking element by element, it's very flashy. It's even very flashy. And yet, on arrival, the whole seems almost pastel. Acids disguised in baby pink and sky blue!

Everything shakes, shakes us, but everything holds. Everything balances and, when you look at it closely, it's a feat. Creating easy harmonies is clearly not the vocation of today's painting according to Barontini. This line of research seems to be the first key to his art. The second? Let's look at his iconography. It's quite a mess, producing what Connaissance des Arts very nicely calls "heroic" images.  We can see, as we are invited to, "racial and post-colonial" themes. But this does not make the art any better. We don't even care where Barontini's fascination with the mythology of ancient Egypt comes from. In fact, perhaps we should look at it the other way round. Aren't these elements that the artist hunts for in the background, even on scratched textiles, chosen because they suggest proud characters, full of arrogance and ceremony in their pose? Their pose? Raphaël Barontini is one hell of a portrait painter today.

Visual : Barontini - Njinga

RXM