Jules Kunhardt — Painter · Grasse and Chicago

“La Piscine” is a series about colour, light and shadow, captured in fleeting snapshots. Warmth, calm and play – everything we associate with holidays is found here at the edge of the pool.

In each picture a few luminous colours dominate. The other surfaces recede – impasto, broken and almost chalky, as if overexposed. Below, the freshness of the water; above, the shimmering heat of the sun.

Although the figures are painted from real models, they seem almost timeless and interchangeable. Their movements appear slowed down, their gestures recall a stage play. One wants to step into these scenes and yet remains a spectator. They speak of a longing that reaches beyond the moment itself: the wish for a time out.

Inspired by the wall paintings of the Renaissance, I reduce the scenes to a few deliberately placed areas of colour. The matt, luminous surface of the gouache and the absence of detail give the figures something doll-like and the pictures a quiet, remote atmosphere.