Cremonini (Leonardo) & Debray (Régis) : L’Hypothèse du désir
“L’hypothèse du désir” is composed of a conversation between the painter Leonardo Cremonini and the mediologist Régis Debray. It is followed by a biography by Jacques Brosse, completed by Pietro Cremonini. This ensemble is framed by the reproduction of thirty-two unpublished photographs of the painter studio, taken by Corinne Mercadier after the artist’s death to try to approach the universe of this artist through a “look that isolates the objects, as the picture of a memory”.
2015 / 16 x 20 cm / 136 p. / ISBN : 979-10-92444-25-4
Conversation / Art / Painting / Dialogue / Creation
The conversation between the painter Leonardo Cremonini and Régis Debray offers a perspective of the artist’s universe. Completed by the biography realized by Jacques Brosse and Pietro Cremonini, and by the thirty-two photographs taken by Corinne Mercadier, this book presents different visions of the artist – today deceased – and pays homage to him. The dialogue between Régis Debray and Leonardo Cremonini paints the portrait of a singular and marginal man, of a “discontemporary” (mécontemporain). It also deals with the question of the creation and the reception of art, of its place in our society, of the artist’s work and of the necessity to create. This exchange between artists does not limit itself to a plain interview : it is actually, in a way, a dialogue between painting and literature. This book is the result of an exchange between artists and writers, sharing their points of view on subject that are dear to their hearts.
Leonardo Cremonini (1925-2010) is a painter whose work stands out from the contemporary art of the XXth century. Admired by Francis Bacon and by the greatest modern intellectuals, his painting is resolutely figurative. His work is also personal, as it is far from any movement : Cremonini created a world born from distant memories, from his dreams, his subconscious. His paintings are realized with a realistic precision and an irreproachable technic, but his universe is immersed in a metaphysical unreality.
