Philippe Pasqua

Philippe Pasqua (born 15 June 1965) is a French contemporary artist, known for his paintings, sculptures and drawings.

Self-taught and (solitary), he is best known for his paintings of Vanitas and considered one of the major artists of his generation.

Born in Grasse on 15 June 1965, Philippe Pasqua moved to Paris in 1975.

When he was about 18, he started painting and moved to New-York where he lived for about two years.

In 1985 he was noticed for his paintings of fetishes and voodoo inspired figures and makes his gallery debut in 1990.

According to Art critic José Alvare, Philippe Pasqua has a playful approach to his work, despite being extremely productive and living an ascetic life : he sleeps very little and does not drink or smoke.

In the late 1990s, he worked together with Jean-Luc Moulène, painting over his photographs, including his snapshots of Notre-Dame de Paris.

Philippe Pasqua started sculpting in 1990 with the series "Vanitas", consisting of several works of up to three meters high.

He also photographed the works, and considered the photographs to be works in themselves.

When sculpting, he uses bronze, onyx, solid silver, Carrara marble, human skulls covered in pigments, gold, or silver leaves, and tattooed leather.

In only three years, between 1995 and 1997, he created about a thousand pieces.

Through the 2000s, and even more so during the 2010s, sculpture gained more focus in his work.

His sculpture works are extremely diverse and include bronze olive trees, clown-headed monkeys staged to evoke Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, Tyrannosaurus-Rex, and a Ferrarri covered in tattooed animal hide and hung vertically on a wall.

In 2006 the collector and art dealer Jose Mugrabi bought about a hundred of his works, and asked for some sort of exclusivity on Pasqua's artistic production.

Art historian Pierre Restany has also shown interest in the work of Philippe Pasqua and has written about it.

In 2011, Pasqua's signature came second in Artprice rankings of French contemporary artists.

Philippe Pasqua says he likes painting better than other medium.

His works depict transsexuality, Down syndrome, and blindness.

Julián Zugazagoitiai, director of El Museo del Barrio in New York City, accounts for Pasqua's choices this way: "Through painting, Philippe Pasqua confers dignity to subjects that are, sadly, dealt with by the media without any aesthetic or ethical consideration. As opposed to sensational media coverage that make of us all indulgent onlookers of the immediate present, Philippe Pasqua’s work opens us to the transcendence of painting and questions the moral values of our time."

The many layers of paint applied on the canvas to show the brutality of matter are in total opposition with the vulnerable and fragile human subjects of Pasqua's series.

Pasqua uses mostly red, brown and grey hues, in an attempt to render the color of flesh.

His series of drawings depict the same subjects as his paintings but with voluntarily blurred outlines.

Philippe Pasqua makes palimpsests, works on paper that mix serigraphy, print, paint, pastel and inking techniques.

He comes back relentlessly to his own works, adding new colors or drawing over them.

In 2017, he was invited by the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco to raise awareness about ocean protection.

On this occasion, he exhibited monumental sculptures of sea animals.

The previous artist invited by the museum was Damien Hirst, with whom Pasqua had worked in the past.

The following year he exhibited in the park and castle of the Chamarande domaine, near Paris.