Benoît Maire
Clouds paintings
The series Clouds paintings by Benoît Maire features oil on canvas works in varying format, in which the artist depicts clouds, using a variety of tools, including a spray gun, paintbrush, or palette knife. The cloud motif in this series of paintings questions the limits of abstraction by playing with the concept of pareidolia—a psychological phenomenon by which we recognize familiar shapes in landscapes, clouds, or ink stains. Through his careful composition and use of pentimenti, Maire invites the viewer to project their imagination onto these colorful clouds. Clouds are suggestive elements, made to be reproduced, interpreted as the continuity of our imagination. They are a space of projection, a space of appearance and disappearance. According to Maire, a cloud “[…] doesn’t signify but contains the weight of representation.”
Some of his cloud paintings are composed around fragments of newspaper pages chosen by the artist. They reveal historical conflict, such as the moment when the United States entered World War II. These archival inserts selected by the artist for their textual elements and formal opportunities give weight to the otherwise whimsical sensibility and anchors the work from landscape painting to historical painting.