Raymond Douillet-Chevoleau Opening at Angela King Gallery, New Orleans, LA, USA

The Angela King Gallery, in the French Quarter of New Orleans, opened an exhibit for French painter Raymond Douillet-Chevoleau on 2 November 2007, Friday. Mr. Douillet-Chevoleau was in attendance for the exhibit. The gallery obviously wanted his second time to exhibit in New Orleans in seven years to be something special. He was to exhibit his second showing in 2005 instead but Katrina cancelled those plans. There was little room even to stand, less for those who had multiple glasses of the wine offerings.

On to the art.

Douillet-Chevoleau’s paintings are executed perfectly. His works make you think of Dali for the slope towards surrealism, Hieronymous Bosch for the allegorial hints, and even Raphael’s School of Athens in his “L’Heures qui passe.” He references other artists too, though usually in an editorial fashion: his mockery of Mondrian is magnifique and he rants about Rothko’s rhetoric.

At the gallery’s links, you can see the images which were on display. while small web sizes won’t do the details and precision any justice, it shouldn’t be less stated that Douillet-Chevoleau’s technique is on par with the classical masters. Peruse the gallery and you’ll find that his pencil work, yes, there were pencil works too, is perfect. The lines on the paper are sharp (i guess he continually sharpened his pencils while working) and even the colors applied on a couple of those pencil works are ink sharp.

Freud held that sublimation, the substitute for unrequited sexual desires, is why artists make art, writers write, and musicians play. Hm, looking through Douillet-Chevoleau’s work you’d think he made art to cope with a controlling female who used sex to control him. In all but a few works the sexual innuendos were prevalent; you’d not need any kind of imagination to force the interpretation either. While Douillet-Chevoleau’s wife was also present at the show, i couldn’t help but stare at her wondering if she was the giant woman who held the tree in her hands and whether her artist husband was getting back at her for an affair or two.

All that being said, Douillet-Chevoleau’s work is destined for a museum, for the Louvre next century, and the loo for people shy of any hints of sexuality within art.