Simon Fujiwara Nymphéas de Who? (Solo Swimmer), 2023
Pastel on canvas
97 x 122 cm (unframed)
117,5 x 141,6 x 6 cm (framed)
Simon Fujiwara's Nymphéas de Who? (Solo Swimmer) pursues the artist's exploration of iconic canons of the history of art through the perspective of his cartoon character Who the Bær.
In this pastel on canvas, Fujiwara recreates the serene composition and iridescent colors of Claude Monet's late works inspired by his garden at Giverny: the Nymphéas (1914-1926). At the center of the pond, a water lily surfaces, bearing Who's characteristic features: white flower-shaped eyes, a pink pistil tongue and ears shaped by the leaves of the water plant. On both sides of the canvas, branches of a weeping willow plunge into the water, framing this dreamlike apparition.
Fujiwara's version of the Nymphéas follows a long history of artists inspired by the composition of this masterpiece of modernism, from Cy Twombly to Ann Veronica Janssens. By making Who's face appear in the water lily leaves, Fujiwara continues to question the overproduction and overcirculation of images, where the obsessive figure of Who arises even in a moment of contemplation of nature.