Laure Mary-Couégnias - New Now & Design Hong Kong Sunday, November 26, 2023 | Phillips

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  • “… some elements are as flat as our screens but other elements seem to want to leave the canvas. It is an approach of ‘mise en abyme’ which has the ambition to express the need to escape through objects which plunge us into another dimension that itself is imprisoned in a frame.”
    — Laure Mary-Couégnias

     

    In the painting The Lovers Crown Their Vow, there is a profound exploration of dimensionality, both in a literal and metaphoric sense. The leopards’ heads, rendered with a two-dimensional flatness, evokes the familiar surface-level engagement we often experience with our digital screens — swiftly, superficially, without truly delving into depth. Conversely, the grapes possess a three-dimensional quality that seems to push against the confines of the canvas, yearning to break free. This ‘mise en abyme’ approach, as the artist describes, captures the essence of objects desiring to escape to a dimension beyond their static existence. The grapes, with their tangible roundness and volume, symbolize a more immersive, tactile engagement, reminiscent of experiences that beckon us to dive in and immerse.

     

    Detail of the current lot

     

    The present diptych, The Lovers Crown Their Vows, also draws a palpable parallel to the works of Henri Rousseau, known for his naïve art style characterized by fantastical jungle scenes and portrait landscapes. Unlike Rousseau, Mary-Couegnias’s work reflects an intentional deviation from the traditional painting techniques. Using stark contrast in lighting — with the background enveloped in the darkness of night and the foreground basking in daylight — the delineation of space remains elusive. The artist masterfully captures these dualities, reminding viewers of the continuous interplay between the flatness of our screens and the depth of the world around us, all while emphasizing the inherent desire of objects to transcend their boundaries.

     

    Henri Rousseau, Fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo, 1908
    Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art
    Image: Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the Hanna Fund 1949.186

     

    Surrealism plays a significant role in the Mary-Couégnias’s works, fostering metamorphosis and introducing the allure of unpredictability, where the expected rendezvous might never occur and the known universe becomes intriguingly unfamiliar. The diptych format, especially as seen in a mirrored presentation, creates a sense of duality which can be likened to the reflection one might see in water or in a dream, where familiar scenes are replicated, yet subtly altered. Just as surrealism blurs the lines between the real and the imagined, the diptych's mirrored imagery challenges viewers to discern between the two panels and, in doing so, confront their own perceptions of reality. It evokes ’the stillness of velvety rich still lifes,‘ drawing the viewer into a world where time seems suspended and reality is beautifully distorted. i

     

    Salvador Dali, Elephants, 1948
    Artwork: © 2023 Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

     

    Born in 1989, Laure Mary-Couégnias is a French artist who got her degree in fine arts from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in 2015. She is known for her unique artistic style that melds Naive Art, Pop Art, and Surrealism to create strange, evocative worlds. Her works are featured in various public and private collections, such as the Association Les Harpailleurs, Switzerland, The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, USA, and the Château de Courterolles, France. Mary-Couégnias has participated in a range of solo and group exhibitions. Selected solo exhibitions include Time Out at Dio Horia Gallery, Escape Lane at Richard Heller Gallery, and Dream Bank at Domaine de Roueire, Contemporary Art Center in France, all of which are held in 2021. 

     


    i Laure Mary-Couégnias, quoted in Gwynned Vitello, ‘The Allure of Twilight’, Juxtapozonline.

     

    • Provenance

      Dio Horia Gallery, Athens
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

25

The Lovers Crown Their Vows

signed, titled and dated '"The Lovers Crown Their Vows" 2018 Laure Mary-Couégnias' on the reverse of each panel
acrylic on canvas, diptych
each 140 x 100 cm. (55 1/8 x 39 3/8 in.)
overall 140 x 200 cm. (55 1/8 x 78 3/4 in.)

Painted in 2018.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$80,000 - 120,000 
€9,400-14,200
$10,300-15,400

Sold for HK$82,550

Contact Specialist

Angela Tian
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now & Design Sale
20th Century & Contemporary Art, Hong Kong
+852 2318 2058
AngelaTian@phillips.com

New Now & Design

Hong Kong Auction 26 November 2023