Philippe Pastor utilizes a wide-ranging multidisciplinary practice to raise awareness for several humanitarian and environmental causes. Often implementing natural substances such as soil or, as in the present lot, raw pigment, into his works, Pastor imbues his art with a life force that manifests itself in both the conceptual and material frameworks. Representing Monaco at both the 2007 Venice Biennale and 2015 Expo in Milan, Pastor is recognized as one of the foremost contemporary artist-activists.
In 2004, musician and activist Michael Franti embarked on a trip through war-torn areas of the Middle East, capturing first-hand footage of the human cost of war with a small production team and a guitar. The following year he released the documentary, I Know I’m Not Alone, which chronicled his interactions with civilians, sharing music with people trying to survive in warzones. The revelatory film amplified the often-forgotten voices of everyday people, allowing them to convey elements of their lives that lay beyond the scope of mainstream news cycles.
Inspired by Franti’s documentary and subsequent Power to the Peaceful Festival, Pastor gifted the musician and his team a work centered around the 2004 kidnapping and execution of British citizen, Kenneth Bigley, by extremists in Baghdad. A collaged image of a blindfolded Bigley is framed by thick strokes of black paint rendered in Pastor’s signature dynamic visual language. Just below the haunting picture, gravelly mounds of impasto rise above streaks of crimson and swirling blues, injecting the work with a sharp textural cadence that reflects the brutal essence of the work. Areas of blank canvas border surround the central forms, seemingly symbolizing a life cut short by political violence. Kenneth Bigley, 2004, serves as a prominent example of Pastor’s ability to distill and convey intricacies of humanitarian issues in a uniquely expressive and emotionally powerful aesthetic.
