October 7, 2020, 10:30am
Depending on how familiar you are with her work, you may not be surprised to learn that graphic memoirist Marjane Satrapi, whose Persepolis has become a modern classic, is also a figurative painter. “Painting is about going back to the origin of what I liked doing. And my mental health depends on it,” she told Agence France-Presse.
Satrapi is currently exhibiting 16 of her paintings in the Francoise Livinec gallery in Paris this month, all of them striking portraits of dark-haired women in a signature color scheme. “Like the Old Masters, I would like to fill the public need for beauty,” she said. Portraits of men, however, do not fill this need. “All that badly shaved skin,” she said. “The male peacock may be more beautiful than the female, but with humans it’s the women who are much prettier.”
A few of Satrapi’s paintings are below. See more at Francoise Livinec online or in person, if you’re lucky enough to be in Paris right now.
Marjane Satrapi, Ecole des filles 2, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Le geste du regard, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Meeting, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Annonciation, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Sphinge, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Ecole des filles 1, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Smoking, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Under the influence, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Stars, 2020, acrylic on canvas
Marjane Satrapi, Skyscraper, 2020, acrylic on canvas