Père, fils et chat 2020

This painting, *Père, fils et chat*, by Cricorps, it’s a real puzzle box of colour and form. You can see Cricorps really laying down the paint, like building blocks. Each flat segment of colour nudges against the next, and together they make up this tender scene. Looking at the father, you can see the way the ochre and yellow in his face are divided by these graphic black outlines. It’s like looking at stained glass, but made of flesh. The whole image is built from flat planes of colour, it's a scene pieced together, not so different from Braque and Picasso's cubist portraits. The effect is almost cartoonish, like a comic book. And I keep coming back to this cat—or maybe it’s a dog—that they hold, all flame-like oranges and reds. It’s the warm center of this family unit. Cricorps reminds us that painting is an ongoing conversation, each artist borrowing and building upon the ideas of those who came before.