Jean-Philippe Roubaud

« Didascalie VI : A l’ombre de la lumière » 

This autumn, you can see works by Jean-Philippe Roubaud at Suquet des Artistes in Cannes – his delicate, fragile lines, memento mori every present. This exhibition celebrates the present moment with humour.

By Tanja Stojanov

Although he worked with paint and colour for 15 years, these days Jean-Philippe Roubaud excels with his black and white drawings. He has been honing his drawing skills for eight years, and teaches this art at Villa Thiole, the municipal art school in Nice. He trained at Villa Arson and is exhibiting in his home town of Cannes for the first time. Each of his exhibitions is titled Didascalie (which means ‘stage directions’, whether written in the script or given by the director). With this show, Didascalie VI, subtitled A l’ombre de la lumière (‘In the shadow of the light’), the venue plays an important role. It was once a hospital where the artist’s mother trained as a nurse. Roubaud has themed his show on the impermanence of art and living things – death and survival, treated with his characteristic humour. The show starts with a series of ceramics from which odours of turpentine and linseed oil waft forth. As we move on through the exhibition we see portraits of the artist at the three ages of life and an ‘altarpiece’ referencing church rites. He offers us flowers and has invited dozens of anonymous figures for a series of drawings inspired by secondary figures in the canvases of Old Masters. Technical virtuosity taking root in art history: this is generous work, and altogether masterly.

Jusqu’au 21 janvier 2024
Suquet des artistes
7 rue Saint-Dizier, Cannes