Claude Verlinde

CLAUDE VERLINDE (Paris, 1927-2020).
"Les Bulles", 1971.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 38.5 x 47 cm; 89 x 73 cm (frame).

In the work in tender Claude Verlinde takes us to a world with blurred borders in which we do not know if we are on land or under the sea. Forks with human faces swarm in the environment. The broken plate, the Hollywood sign and the subway ticket represent a consumer society in decay. Verlinde writes: "The world is no longer a reality, it is a spectacle. The theater is the painting." The references to Bosch in the work are obvious, but we can also find analogies with Le Douanier Rousseau. The background landscape recalls the great master. Verlinde adds his poetic touch with a bubble that may evoke the moon. In the foreground we can see a cornucopia at the ends of which life is represented: on the left a young tree bud, on the right a man blowing bubbles symbolizing sleep, hope, with a woman stripped of her clothes inside.

Claude Verlinde was trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and at the Grande Chaumière Academy. His style is catalogued as close to surrealism, postmodernism and even imaginary realism. He is clearly influenced by painters such as El Bosco, Kronach, Francisco de Goya and James Ensor in his production. Some critics define his painting as follows: "From his Flemish origins, he is indebted to a truculence that makes him heir to Brueghel, said the Elder, to Bosch, with scenes in the form of fables with multiple readings. His parables give us "his reality". Sometimes disturbing and humorous, they oscillate between tenderness and seriousness, caricature and poetry".