Tag: Richard Heller

“Beginnings,” the new show from Spanish artist Paco Pomet, is funny. Hard-hitting criticism, I know, but humor can be a rarity in the world of contemporary art. Most art that one could even remotely consider funny is usually of the ironic, intellectual variety, like Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. or Magritte’s The Treachery Of Images. But Pomet’s oeuvre of surrealistic landscapes possesses a genuine, accessible humor that is a refreshing departure from the self-serious, incisive world of the global contemporary.

Instead of trying to explain the humor of “Beginnings” – an endeavor that is always doomed to fail – it’s best to start with the value of humor in art in general. Art can do many things, but it’s especially good at reminding us how to feel. Most often prized are the profound feelings, like sublimity and sharpness, but there is equal value in reveling in absurdity and levity. Pomet’s brilliant painting draws out the admirability of these over-looked feelings, elevating them to equal profundity.

And Pomet appears aware of this dichotomy between profound and absurd, as he borrows imagery from very profound works. In Das Erhabene Büro (2020), Pomet borrows the central figure from Casper David Friedrich’s classic Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (1818). In an example of Romantic sublimity, Friedrich’s titular wanderer stands atop a mountain, looking down towards a mist-covered valley; by contrast, Pomet’s wanderer instead looks out from his rocky perch onto a 1920s office, complete with candle-stick phones. Pomet’s office is in grey-scale, except for a sun, blazing yellow and white in an adjacent room and giving our wanderer a warm glow.

The absurdity of Das Erhabene Büro (German for “The Sublime Office”) is valuable because it encourages us to consider the very real absurdity of our lives. Be it working in a modern office or the Cold War anxiety of nuclear destruction, Pomet weaves scenes with humor and beauty that challenge the sophomoric conception of our world as a serious place. Yes, our world is a place where serious things happen, where profound feelings are felt, but it is equally a place where silly things happen, where people laugh and feel light – and both are worthy of art.

Richard Heller Gallery
2525 Michigan Ave., B-5A, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Thru May 8th, 2021