High Voltage Painting 1965

Artist: We are looking at Martial Raysse's "High Voltage Painting" from 1965. It’s executed in enamel paint. Art Historian: Immediately, those radiant lips strike me. They’re neon-bright, drawing all the focus in with almost disorienting power. There's a definite unease that creeps in. Artist: Exactly! Raysse wanted to capture the energy of the modern city and our infatuation with consumerism and its alluring intensity. To him, the electric lights are what draw you in, making you think, but is it beauty? Art Historian: The amplified mouth, bathed in its luminous halo, definitely evokes a siren-like appeal, reminiscent of how advertising co-opts ancient mythologies. There's an unsettling distortion, where the mouth, traditionally a source of sustenance and communication, transforms into a symbol of artificial desire. It’s almost menacing. Artist: The artist created a world of exaggerated surfaces with this work, and his images vibrate, both with an erotic quality but also alienation. He found his aesthetic sweet spot in between the French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and advertising imagery, finding the beauty in the oddest places. I love it! Art Historian: Absolutely, there's a tension there. Those lips have all the allure, the potential for connection. Yet the cool detachment in the eyes speaks of something else entirely. In this, I read commentary about the commodification of intimacy and the human desire for love being exploited. Artist: It does hold a rather scary mirror up to the vacuous landscape that he's hinting at. Well, looking again at those beautiful electric lips, it definitely zaps the imagination into overdrive! Art Historian: Indeed. I find the picture is haunting—as much a reflection of society's obsessions then as it might be now.