TAB Event - "Georges Rouault and Grotesque" Exhibition

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At Shiodome Museum | Rouault Gallery
Media: Painting

"Grotesque" is a word coming for the Italian word "grotta" meaning "cave". The word "grotesque" seems about right to make an association with Rouault, a "painter of catacombs" who was born in a basement. In general, "grotesque" gives the impression of something being weird, eccentric or uncanny. However, it is clear in his painting titled "Grotesque People", also known as "Demagogy", that his paintings at once appear humorous and yet clearly satirical.

With clear composition and accurate strokes, Rouault perfectly visualizes the ambivalent dichotomy of grotesqueness - ridiculous and terrifying, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, sacred and vulgar - in his caricatures of an ugly prostitute, arrogant judge, good-minded Ubu, and a clown with a bitter smile. As one spends time looking at his paintings, those caricatured figures could potentially turn out to be one's acquaintances from real life, or a reflection of one's self. The uncanny smiles depicted in the paintings reveal a critical message, and that is what "grotesque" speaks of.

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