Bernard RANCILLAC (1931-2021) - Lot 12

Bernard RANCILLAC (1931-2021) Naked, 2001 Serigraph, numbered and signed. Paper : Velin d'Arches 250 g Format: 270 x 380 mm Justified 42/120 copies Note: A major figure in narrative figuration, Bernard Rancillac's work at the turn of the 2000s was always marked by the tension between commitment, contemporary visual culture and the iconography of the body. With Naked (2001), the artist proposes a frontal and deliberately fragmented representation of the nude, treated in an immediately recognizable graphic language: flat areas of vivid color, strong black outlines and tight composition. The silkscreen, produced on 250 g Arches vellum, bears witness to Rancillac's technical mastery and taste for reproduction processes, which he hijacks here to create an image that is both sensual and distanced. The tight, almost abrupt framing evacuates any anecdotal narrative to focus the eye on form, color and sign, in an aesthetic close to pop culture while retaining a critical dimension. Issued in an edition of 120, this numbered and signed print (42/120) is fully in keeping with the artist's late graphic production, sought-after for its stylistic coherence and market accessibility. Naked powerfully illustrates the permanence of themes dear to Rancillac and is a representative testimony to his work on the body and the image at the dawn of the XXIᵉ century.