Louis XIV #4 2011

Curator: Looking at "Louis XIV #4," painted by Alexander Roitburd in 2011 using oil paint, I'm struck by how powerfully the historical weight of monarchy is conveyed. What's your immediate impression? Editor: Gloomy, maybe a touch macabre. The face, or what’s left of it, is so obscured. It feels like the symbols of power are all that's left, drained of vitality. Like a costume left behind after the party's over. Curator: Precisely. Roitburd uses expressionistic brushstrokes to depict the regalia of Louis XIV. The fleur-de-lis pattern, usually associated with French royalty, becomes almost oppressive in its density. We can feel the weight of inherited tradition. Editor: It’s like he's stripping away the glory, focusing instead on the... shell? I keep coming back to that head. It's not a portrait, but a death mask emerging from the fabric of power. The symbols are like ghosts. Curator: The ghostly effect is important. Notice how the artist utilizes light. It isn’t a celebratory illumination but a harsh, almost clinical exposure of artifice. Consider also the deliberate vagueness. Louis XIV is both present and absent; the image embodies an uncanny space. Editor: Uncanny is the perfect word! I also wonder if the artist isn’t commenting on the contemporary obsession with power and celebrity. That empty gaze in the almost decomposing visage could be speaking volumes about today, reflecting society's insatiable hunger to possess these individuals, like capturing their aura or essence but being left with an emptied object. Curator: An insightful point. Roitburd taps into a vein of collective memory, reminding us that even the most powerful figures are ultimately reduced to symbols, their individual humanity obscured. The visual cues we know of him become the shell. What a strong choice! Editor: Absolutely. It’s an unsettling painting, but profoundly thought-provoking. The artist is playing with historical iconography, and in effect, offering a powerful meditation on legacy, meaning, and the often-destructive nature of time itself.