Curatorial notes
Corneille made this vibrant piece, La Femme aux paupières peintes, and the immediate feeling is of summer. A woman lies in a field of green grass, gazing up at a bird in flight. The colours are vivid, almost Fauvist in their intensity, but also playful. Look at the way he uses the red for the figure, a bold statement against the green. The texture is something else too. You can almost feel the thickness of the paint, the way he’s layered it on the canvas to create depth. Then there's the bird - it's not just a bird, but an idea of a bird. The bird is made of grey geometric shapes like something you might have played with as a child. It feels optimistic, like he is showing us how to dream with our eyes open. Like Joan Miro before him, Corneille reminds us that art is a language of symbols and dreams, and it's up to us to piece together the meaning.