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Raymond Douillet // birds

by Lorin Drexler · Aug 26, 2022

The Daughter of Ariadne // © Angela King Gallery

Saint Sebastian and Cupid // © Angela King Gallery

The Succubi // © Angela King Gallery

The Soul of the Musician // © Angela King Gallery

The Witch // © Angela King Gallery

Raymond Douillet – Featured Artist

The Last Hour // © Angela King Gallery

birds

the woman sits upon the earth
as if it were hers
swaying the magical elephant
with her spidering fingers
star-crossing reverberant paths
with the other adjoining musicians
sitting in from neighboring 
quantum galaxies 

each planet in the grand orchestra
is designated to a specific player 
responsible for a particular role 
the stray dissonance of 
their intersection resonates
between galaxies and throughout
the temple of the earth
which is architected in perfectly
sculpted geometrical shapes

a giant crow leaps from the piano—
	it is the piano!
spindling frequencies like harpoons
into the anthropomorphic birds that 
dance nude around the temple 
like tribal shadow puppets juggling
spherical foundations of universal matter
between rhythm and whim

—exit scene—

the band continues to play
some members pass on
new ones join
old ones rejoin
but the music never stops
until it does
and then
without any rhyme or reason
starts again

—enter new scene—

a skull buries in the sand
dividing the hourglass 
between night and day 
which draws much attention 
to the exhumation of human activity

the man sits upon the statue
his head becomes a piano
the two make love
at the base of the skull
a baby is found in a tree

—exit scene—

the brief embryonic tissue
envelops
everything is opaque before
it becomes itself

—enter new scene—

a funeral pyre
is lost in space
displaced in the far
reaches of some other
quantum galaxy
the reaper is dressed only
in black lingerie
casting its spell 
ordaining the clock 
to deaden at midnight

we have seen its skull
and know it to be 
the face of the reaper
the window is a mirror to space
and the woman 
stripped to the stars
in swanlike distress
is undressed and pure 
the ghosts are aroused
they know they cannot be seen
this arouses them more

every crow reminds
the moon there is
still light
it stands upon the skeletal
head of the reaper
the caw signifies death
death signifies life
the birth of the sun and
four and a half billion years 
the crescent smile is a reminder
there is still time
not much
but enough for experience
enough to join hands
before the shadow gods
eat the rest

we tend to forget
the reaper is living too
though objected from doing so
but as for her 
life could not continue
she's sung with the birds
flapped her wings
loosened her feathers 
her journey will not be
remembered or forgotten
existing was never intended
for perennial palpability
there are no remaining postures
of identifying demonstratives
no relativity or importance
in the general conveyance 
of conduct that demands
but never needed
immediate action or attention
you were just there one moment
and the other you were not

—exit scene—

the crypt is chained shut
at least for this moment
the clock smiles
the piano marches
until its next march
which whistles in
a final successor

the romancer finds himself
aroused in the night
the two make love and
join together in a new tree
the world or some idea of such
starts over again
imperfect and soon forgotten

by LORIN DREXLER

Pollution // © Angela King Gallery

Night and Day // © Angela King Gallery

Dazzled // © Angela King Gallery

Nocturne // © Angela King Gallery

The Music of the Spheres // © Angela King Gallery


Raymond Douillet

www.angelakinggallery.com/raymond-douillet

Hautmont, France

Raymond Douillet was born on July 20th, 1947 — on the very day of the Tour de France cycle race arrival — in Hautmont, in the North of France. This small town is separated from Maubeuge by a river, the Sambre. Maubeuge is Jan Gossaert’s, also named Jean de Mabuse (c 1478-1532), native town. He introduced the spirit and shapes of the Italian Renaissance into Northern Gothic Art through Dürer’s decisive influence. Almost four centuries and a half later, Raymond Douillet, unaware of it at the beginning, followed his prestigious predecessors’ footsteps. This could be called, owing to André Breton’s phrase, an « objective coincidence »: from one painter to the other, this relationship, which was fortuitous at the beginning, is now shared within a space configuration that has more than one thing in common. Everything works out as if Mabuse’s formula found an echo in Raymond’s paintings, a set up « mirrorical return » in accordance with a singular catoptric where combined coincidence and time would be the project managers.

If the Sambre is the river that draws together Raymond Douillet and Jean de Mabuse beyond time, it is also the link with René Magritte when flowing through nearby Charleroi. It was in 1912 in the Sambre in Charleroi that Magritte’s mother’s body was recovered, and in this town, his first impressionistic-painted works came into being.

Working at his studio in an old coaching inn among the fields of a French farm community, the artist creates works unparalleled in quality and attention to detail. Viewers are often surprised to learn that the models who people the artist’s canvases are not highly-paid models, but rather, common townsfolk, close friends, and most often family. Their poses are incorporated into the overall architectural framework of the pieces, or, as in the case of smaller works, their movements and expressions can become this framework. And while the true meaning of the finished work is left to the viewer to determine, Douillet frequently paints to show us parallels between verbal and physical expression, as well as commonalities between the English and French languages: a game we refer to as double entendre.

Douillet has been a member of the Salon des Artistes Francais since 1975 and the Salon d’Automne since 1978. His paintings grace a number of important corporate and private collections worldwide.


What is Gen Society?

Gen Society is an art space blog for visual art and creative writing collaborations, and other randomizations. Hosted by writer and musician Lorin Drexler, this online venue is an expressive experience for those interested in the world of the arts. It is a poetic journey through the hearts and minds of contemporary artists in practice and a reflection of those that have long passed.

If you’re an artist and would like to submit your work in consideration to collaborate with Gen Society, please click below:

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