Catherine Gran
Monstre carré, 2015
Oil on canvas
100 x 100 cm
Copyright The Artist
Catherine Gran Monstre carré Oil on canvas 100 × 100 cm In Monstre carré, Catherine Gran places her imaginary creature within a space crowded with open boxes and scattered packaging....
Catherine Gran
Monstre carré
Oil on canvas
100 × 100 cm
In Monstre carré, Catherine Gran places her imaginary creature within a space crowded with open boxes and scattered packaging. Its enormous body extends beyond the limits of the canvas, while its elongated head bends towards the objects gathered on the floor. The close framing gives the scene an immediate physical presence: the monster appears to have entered the viewer’s space, absorbed in the patient examination of an unfamiliar world.
Gran constructs the creature through an accumulation of incongruous forms. Spiral eyes, branching appendages, tubular limbs and star-shaped feet compose an anatomy that remains impossible yet visually coherent. The seams running across its surface evoke an inflated fabric sculpture, giving the body a soft and vulnerable materiality. Despite its imposing scale, the creature’s lowered posture and attentive gaze suggest curiosity rather than aggression.
Within the exhibition Les Monstres tendres, the painting exemplifies Gran’s transformation of monstrosity into an encounter with difference. The disorder of the boxes may suggest an arrival, a departure or the discovery of abandoned possessions, but the narrative remains deliberately unresolved. The monster becomes the sensitive centre of the composition, revealing a capacity for attention and wonder. Through the precision of her painting and the gentle absurdity of the scene, Gran grants this strange being an emotional presence that is both humorous and deeply sympathetic.
Monstre carré
Oil on canvas
100 × 100 cm
In Monstre carré, Catherine Gran places her imaginary creature within a space crowded with open boxes and scattered packaging. Its enormous body extends beyond the limits of the canvas, while its elongated head bends towards the objects gathered on the floor. The close framing gives the scene an immediate physical presence: the monster appears to have entered the viewer’s space, absorbed in the patient examination of an unfamiliar world.
Gran constructs the creature through an accumulation of incongruous forms. Spiral eyes, branching appendages, tubular limbs and star-shaped feet compose an anatomy that remains impossible yet visually coherent. The seams running across its surface evoke an inflated fabric sculpture, giving the body a soft and vulnerable materiality. Despite its imposing scale, the creature’s lowered posture and attentive gaze suggest curiosity rather than aggression.
Within the exhibition Les Monstres tendres, the painting exemplifies Gran’s transformation of monstrosity into an encounter with difference. The disorder of the boxes may suggest an arrival, a departure or the discovery of abandoned possessions, but the narrative remains deliberately unresolved. The monster becomes the sensitive centre of the composition, revealing a capacity for attention and wonder. Through the precision of her painting and the gentle absurdity of the scene, Gran grants this strange being an emotional presence that is both humorous and deeply sympathetic.